THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
RIVERSIDE 

GIFT  OF 

Frederick  W.  Koenig 


STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE: 


A   REVIEW   OF 


THE  PRINCIPLES,  PRACTICES,  AND  PROBLEMS  OF 
SOCIETY. 


BY  GEORGE   O.<  LORIMER,   LL.  D. 

'  v  V 

Author  of  "The  Great  Conflict,"  "Jesus  the  World's  Savior," 
"Isms  Old  and  New." 


*  *  *  "  I  call  that  mind  free,  which  protects  itself  against  the  itsur- 
pations  of  society,  which  does  not  cower  to  human  opinion,  which  feels 
itself  accountable  to  a  higher  tribunal  than  man's,  which  respects  a, 
higher  law  than  fashion,  ichich  respects  itself  too  much  to  be  the  slave  or 
tool  of  the  many  or  the  few.'  CHANNINO. 


CHICAGO  AND  NEW  Y.OKK: 
BELFORD,    CLARKE   &   CO. 

188(5. 


LI? 


COPYRIGHT, 

1886. 
BELFORD,  CLARKE  &  Co. 


DONOHUF.  &  HEJJXKBKRRY,  Pi-inters  and  Binders,  Chicago. 


FROM 

WILLIAM  C.  RICHARDS 

TO 

ROBERT   BROWNING. 


Thy  genius,  BROWNING,  to  this  book  hath  lent — 
Like  Sculptor's  skill  in  some  cathedral  shrine — 
A  subtle  charm  of  grace  to  its  design, 
And  to  its  chapters  matchless  ornament. 
Not  vainly  to  thy  wells  its  Author  went 
For  draughts  of  truth  and  wisdom  half  divine ; 
The  purer-one  must  draw  there  with  deep  line — 
And  think  as  deep  to  catch  their  strong  intent. 

For  texts  so  rare  that  fit  so  rare  his  themes — 
No  less  to  thee  the  Author  owes  than  brings 
His  own,  and,  by  foreglance,  his  readers  praise  ; 
While  to  his  friend  the  well-blent  service  seems 
Complete,  as  when  some  world-famed  tenor  sings, 
And  sermons  match  the  singer's  lofty  lays. 


TO 

MY  WIFE: 

Take  them.  Love,  the  book  and  me  together: 
Where  the  heart  lies,  let  the  brain  lie  also." 


CONTEXTS. 
I. 

THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  SOCIETY 11 

II. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  SOCIETY 56 

III. 
THE  INEQUALITIES  OF  SOCIETY 117 

IV, 

THE  SUFFERINGS  OF  SOCIETY 195 

V. 

THE  VICES  OF  SOCIETY 248 

VI, 

THE  IMPOSITIONS  OF  SOCIETY , . 316 

VII. 

THE  DIVISIONS  OF  SOCIETY 34} 

VIII. 
THE  AMUSEMENTS  OF  SOCIETY. 377 

IX. 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  SOCIETY 414 

X. 

THE  HOPE  OF  SOCIETY 4§4 


I  am  sitting  by  ruy  window  looking  out  upon  the  sea.  The  waves 
are  rolling  royally  and  are  fighting  with  each  other  convulsively,  the 
incoming  billow  socking  to  overtake  and  overwhelm  the  one  that  is 
nearing  the  shore,  and  all  the  rest  apparently  striving  to  break  away 
from  fellowship  with  the  ocean  of  which  they  form  a  part,  and  with 
which  they  cannot  help  but  blend.  As  I  gaze  on  the  restless,  surging 
waters  I  think  of  Society.  That,  too,  is  a  troubled  ocean,  bounded 
by  sandy  or  rocky  coast  lines  of  laws  and  institutions,  against  which 
human  beings  hurtle  themselves  with  many  a  moan,  and  from  which 
rise  turbulent  and  yeasty  factions  threatening  each  other  with  destruc- 
tion, pursuing  each  other  mercilessly,  engulfing  each  other  pitilessly, 
and  seeming  as  though  they  would  disown  the  common  nature  which 
they  share  and  which  asserts  itself  in  them  all.  This  comparison 
might  be  continued  almost  indefinitely.  As  the  wide  sea  is  a  unit  in 
its  depths,  though  torn  by  winds  and  divided  on  its  surface,  and  as  it 
has  expanses  of  calm  as  well  as  of  storm  ;  and  as  it  has  currents  that 
counteract  each  other  and  tides  that  advance  and  retreat ;  and  as  it 
has  voices  of  agony  responding  to  cruel  torments  of  the  tempest,  and 
other  voices  of  needless  complaining  when  its  whitest  waves  beat 
gently  upon  the  beach, — so,  likewise,  in  Society.  There,  also,  one- 
ness of  interest  underlies  diversities  of  action ;  there  antagonisms 
sweep  onward  side  by  side  or  cross  each  other's  course  ;  there  sweet 
seasons  of  peace  and  prosperity  are  enjoyed,  and  agam  times  of  con- 
flict and  adversity  are  encountered ;  there,  also,  is  progress,  and  then 
retrogression  and  progress  once  more ;  and  there,  too,  are  cries, 
shrieks  and  repinings,  wrung  from  suffering  thousands  by  the  hand  of 
oppression,  and  wailings  and  murmurings  unwarranted  and  unjusti- 
fiable. 

Of  late  much  attention  has  been  given  to  social  problems,  but  not 
more  than  they  deserve,  for  they  are  the  vital  questions  of  the  age. 
To  their  earnest  consideration  I  have  devoted  for  several  years  the 
time  that  could  be  spared  from  professional  pursuits,  and  in  this 
volume  present  the  results  of  my  observation,  reading  and  reflection. 
Frequently  have  I  lectured  on  these  subjects,  and  some  traces  of  the 
platform  will  be  found  in  their  treatment.  This  defect,  as  some 
critics  may  regard  it,  was  partly  unavoidable,  as  the  habit  of  direct 
address  cultivated  by  one  who  speaks  much  in  public  cannot  readily  be 
overcome.  But  on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  said  by  way  of  apology, 
if  apology  is  needed,  this  style  possesses  some  advantages,  especially 
in  the  direction  of  freedom,  familiarity  and  personal  appeal,  and  I 
felt  that  I  ought  not  to  deprive  myself  altogether  of  its  charm  and 
power. 

9 


It  may  be  of  interest  to  the  reader  to  learn  in  advance  what  is  the 
governing  idea  of  the  book  which  he  is  invited  to  peruse.  In  very 
brief  terms  it  can  be  stated.  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  American  liberty, 
in  contradistinction  to  the  theories  of  liberty  current  in  France  and 
Germany,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  social  amelioration  can  only  be 
promoted  by  the  faithful  application  of  its  principles.  My  aim  has 
been  to  define  these  principles,  to  compare  their  working  with  those 
of  other  systems,  to  show  how  they  are  related  to  religion  and  educa- 
tion, to  portray  the  evils  which  result  from  their  violation  and  the 
vicious  causes  which  hinder  their  beneficent  action,  and  to  make  plain 
what  reforms  are  needed  to  render  them  effective  in  dealing  with 
existing  and  perplexing  problems.  It  may  be  permitted  me  to  add, 
that  in  discharging  my  aelf-imposed  task  I  have  not  sought  after 
scenic  and  sensational  originality,  nor  to  invent  strange  remedies  for 
the  sake  of  inventing.  Mine  the  humbler  ambition  expressed  by 
Robert  Browning: 

I  like  to  use  the  thing  I  find, 
Rather  than  strive  at  unf  ound  novelty : 
I  make  the  best  of  the  old,  nor  try  for  new. 

This  book  has  already  passed  through  one  fire,  being  partially 
destroyed  in  the  great  conflagration  which  wrecked  the  magnificent 
buildings  occupied  by  its  publishers,  and  it  has  been  restored  to  shape 
with  much  labor  and  difficulty.  But  for  this  disaster  it  would  have 
appeared  last  June.  And  now  another  fire  awaits  it — *that  of  the 
critics.  If,  however,  they  shall  treat  it  as  generously  as  they  have 
other  volumes  from  my  pen,  and  if  not  more  of  it  shall  be  charred 
with  censure  than  went  up  in  the  flames  on  that  dreadful  night  in 
May,  I  shall  not  murmur  at  the  ordeal.  But  whatever  may  be  their 
judgment,  I  have  honestly  worked — 

With  powers  appointed  me,  since  powers  denied 
Concern  me  nothing. 

GEORGE  C.  LORIMER. 
OCEAN  HOUSE,  Sw  AMPSCOIT,  Mass.,  August,  1886. 


10 


I. 

THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  SOCIETY. 

Each  creature  holds  an  insular  point  in  space: 
Yet  what  man  stirs  a  finger,  breathes  a  sound, 
But  all  the  multitudinous  beings  round, 
In  all  the  countless  worlds,  with  time  and  place 
For  their  conditions,  down  to  the  central  base, 
Thrill,  haply,  in  vibration  and  rebound, 
Life  answering  life  across  the  vast  profound, 
In  full  antiphony. 

— Mrs.  Browning. 

Be  Hate  that  fruit,  or  Love  that  fruit, 
It  forwards  the  general  deed  of  Man; 
And  each  of  the  many  helps  to  recruit 
The  life  of  the  race  by  a  general  plan, 
Each  living  his  own  to  boot. 

— Robert  Browning. 

SOCIETY  has  been  called  "the  standing  miracle  of  this 
world. "  Its  wonderful  indestructibility  would  seem  to 
warrant  this  representation.  Variable  in  many  respects  as 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  in  other  respects  it  is  as  perma- 
nent. Generations  with  their  crimes,  their  ambitions,  their 
sorrows,  and  despair  have  passed  into  oblivion,  and  new 
generations,  with  perishable  innocence,  joy,  and  hope  have 
followed,  only  to  vanish  as  ignominiously  as  their  predeces- 
sors ;  but  Society,  like  nature's  "solemn  temples"  and 
"the  great  globe  itself,"  though  assailed  by  numerous 
foes,  has  resisted  decay  and  death.  It  may  be  compared  to 
a  light-house  shedding  its  rays  over  the  advancing  and  re- 
ceding tides  of  men  and  of  races,  which  no  billows  have 

11 


12  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

been  able  to  submerge  and  no  lightnings  have  succeeded 
in  wrecking.  Though  mutable  in  form,  being  plastic  and 
versatile,  and  though  frequently  modified  and  diversified  in 
structure,  it  has  remained,  and  yet  remains,  in  its  essential 
features  stable,  persistent  and  unyielding.  Shaken  it  has 
often  been,  but  never  subverted.  Political  revolutions 
have  dashed  their  lava-like  waves  against  it,  or  have 
yawned  like  earthquakes  to  engulf  it;  fanatical  conspiracies 
have  threatened  to  overwhelm  it,  and  dreamy  illusions 
have  attempted  to  undermine  it;  but,  though  at  times  its 
existence  has  been  problematical  and  its  preservation  mar- 
velous, and  though  its  character  has  suffered  from  these 
violent  and  subtle  antagonists,  it  has  never  in  reality  finally 
succumbed.  In  the  long  run  it  has  always  triumphed. 
And  if  it  has  withstood  the  disintegrating  tyranny  and 
licentiousness  of  Nero  the  vicious,  and  of  Louis  the  Great, 
with  all  the  other  disreputable  creatures  who  have  filled 
the  thrones  of  the  world;  and  if  it  has  victoriously  com- 
bated the  disorganizing  lawlessness  of  Marat  the  feline,  and 
of  Robespierre  the  " strait-laced,"  with  all  their  attendant 
sans  culottes  ;  and  if  it  has  survived  the  misleading  visions 
presented  in  "The  Eternal  Gospel"  of  Joachim  de  Fiore, 
"the  Utopia"  of  More,  "The  Ci vitas  Solis"  of  Campa- 
nella,  "The  Oceana"  of  Harrington,  and  "The  Salent" 
of  Fenelon,  we  may  well  believe  that  its  perpetuity  is  as- 
sured to  the  future.  Society  has  been,  is  now,  and  doubt- 
less will  be,  forevermore;or  at  least  until  the  general  day  of 
doom,  if  ever  such  a  day  shall  break  with  annihilating  hor- 
rors on  a  panic-stricken  universe. 

This  continuity  is,  apparently,  deeply  grounded  both  in 
the  nature  of  man  and  in  the  providence  of  God.  Plato 
contends  in  his  Republic,  and  in  his  dialogue  entitled  Pro- 
tagorus,  as  Aristotle  does  in  his  Politics,  that  there  is  in 
all  men  affinity  for  the  social  state.  Locke  also  argues  that 
God  has  made  them  not  only  with  an  inclination  and  under 


TflE  SOCIAL  STATE.  13 

a  necessity  to  have  fellowship  with  those  of  their  own  kind, 
but  has  furnished  them  with  language,  which  is  the  great 
instrument  and  common  tie  of  brotherhood.  And  Fergu- 
son has  confirmed  these  testimonies  by  showing  that  "man- 
kind have  always  wandered  or  settled,  agreed  or  quarreled 
in  troops  and  companies."  Likewise  the  Frenchman, 
Alfred  Fouillee  (La  Science  Sociale  p.  421.),  maintains 
that  the  same  law  which  produced  the  worlds  and  the  con- 
stellations, produced  also  human  society.  His  words  are: 
"  Les  memes  lois  qui  ont  produit  les  mondes  et  les  constella- 
tions produisent  done  les  societes  humaines,  avec  cette  differ- 
ence que  ce  qui  etait  dans  les  uns  lumiere  exterieure  et 
mouvement  fatal  devient  dans  les  autres  lumiere  interieurc 
conscience  et  mouvement  volontaire. "  The  discrimination  he 
here  draws  does  not  detract  in  the  least  from  the  conviction 
that  both  domains  have  proceeded  from  a  necessary  and 
irreversible  law.  Indeed,  history  conclusively  proves  that 
the  social  instinct — the  societatis  appetitus  of  Grotius — is 
strong,  that  it  impels  the  race  to  combine  and  organize, 
and  that  when  such  combinations  are  impaired  or  deranged 
it  inevitably  restores  them  in  the  old  forms  or  in  fresh  ones. 
Thus  then,  Society  is  not  artificial  in  its  origin,,  but  nat- 
ural and  Divine;  and,  therefore,  as  long  as  man  remains 
man,  and  as  long  as  God  rules  over  the  world,  we  may  con- 
fidently expect  it  in  some  shape  to  exist.  But  in  what 
shape?  We  know  that  its  spirit,  institutions,  methods, 
and  manners  have  undergone  frequent  changes,  and  that  it 
has  never  yet  attained  to  such  a  degree  of  perfection  as  to 
dispense  with  the  service  of  reformers.  Evils  have  ever 
afflicted  it,  and  unquestionably  there  is  still  room  for  in- 
definite improvement.  How  it  -shall  be  molded,  how 
fashioned  and  ordered,  that  in  the  future  it  may  more  ade- 
quately and  beneficently  discharge  its  functions  than  in 
the  past,  is  the  vital  question  of  the  hour.  To  its  solution 
all  kinds  of  writers  have  directed,  and  are  still  directing 


14  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

their  energies ;  and  we  only  need  mention  the  names  of 
Mazade,  Lassalle,  Proudhon,  Karl  Marx,  Elise  Reclus, 
Bakounine,  Henry  George,  William  Godwin  Moody,  Will- 
iam Morris,  Owen,  J.  Stuart  Mill,  Fawcett,  Cairnes, 
Thornton,  Laveleye,  Thorold  Rogers,  Carlyle,  Ruskin, 
Herbert  Spencer,  Maurice,  Kingsley,  Thomas  Hughes, 
Renan,  and  a  host  of  others,  to  gain  an  idea  of  the  wide 
range  and  varied  character  of  the  discussion  now  taking 
place.  These  men,  and  thousands  of  the  purest  and  most 
intelligent  everywhere,  sympathize  with  them,  are  painfully 
impressed  by  the  inequalities,  sufferings  and  apparent 
hopelessness  of  modern  times.  They  raise  their  voices 
against  wrongs,  oppressions,  corruptions  and  stupidities  of 
the  age,  and  suggest  as  remedies  schemes,  more  or  less  rad- 
ical, such  as  the  Phalsterianism  of  Fourier,  the  Peoples 
Banks  of  Proudhon,  the  Anarchism  of  Bakounine,  the 
Land  Nationalization  of  George,  and  the  six-hour  law  of 
Moody;  or  they  indulge  in  fierce  invectives,  or  melancholy 
retrospects,  and  gloomy  forebodings,  such  as  distinguish 
the  wearisome  and  endless  complaints  of  Carlyle  and  Rus- 
kin. But  however  they  may  differ  from  each  other  in 
views,  they  seem  to  be  one  in  spirit.  They  are  all  seeking 
the  true  welfare  of  Society,  and  are  alike  striving  to  rouse 
all  peoples  to  fresh  endeavors  in  behalf  of  its  deliverance 
from  the  curses  which  now  disfigure  and  debase  its  char- 
acter. Proudhon  would  classify  them  together  as  "Social- 
ists," and,  adopting  his  interpretation  of  the  term,  we  are 
content  to  do  the  same.  They  constitute  in  reality  a  party 
believing  in  social  progress,  and  laboring  for  its  achieve- 
ment, in  contradistinction  from  those  who  are  satisfied  with 
things  as  they  are,  and  who  question  whether  improvement 
is  possible.  Proudhon,  after  the  Journees  de  Juin  in  1848, 
when  interrogated  by  a  magistrate,  said  that  he  had  been 
contemplating  "the  sublime  horrors  of  the  cannonade." 
"But,"  inquired  the  official,  "are  you  not  then  a  Social- 


PERSONAL    EXPLANATIONS.  lo 

1st?"  "Yes,  assuredly,  I  am  a  Socialist."  "What  then 
is  Socialism?"  asked  his  examiner.  "Socialism,"  replied 
Proudhon,  "is  any  aspiration  toward  the  amelioration  of 
society."  "If  this  be  the  case,  then,"  the  magistrate 
answered,  "we  are  all  Socialists."  "That  is  precisely  my 
opinion,"  quietly  responded  Proudhon.  In  this  sense  then 
we  are  warranted  in  applying  the  name  to  the  multitude,  a 
multitude  ever  increasing,  of  those  who  seek  in  some  way 
to  abate  the  evils  which  burden  and  afflict  humanity.  We 
know  that  this  is  not  the  technical  meaning  of  the  word, 
and  we  are  aware  that  it  is  employed  in  a  narrower  and 
more  objectionable  way ;  but  at  the  same  time  we  cannot 
think  of  any  other  that  as  fittingly  characterizes  the  grow- 
ing party  which,  however  it  may  be  split  into  factions  and 
may  be  divided  into  extremests  and  moderates,  is  intent  on 
social  amelioration  and  advancement  and  has  hearty  hope 
of  ultimate  success. 

In  the  ranks  of  this  party  the  writer  of  these  pages  has 
been  enrolled  for  some  years,  and  still  earnestly  desires  the 
triumph  of  the  cause  it  advocates.  With  this  end  in  view 
he  presumes  to  contribute  the  present  volume.  He  is  not 
a  pessimist.  While  the  sufferings  of  the  race  are  great,  he 
does  not  regard  them  as  being  as  terrible  as  in  former  ages; 
and  while  there  are  fearful  wrongs  to  be  rectified,  he  does 
not  think  that  they  are  as  gigantic  as  some  from  which  the 
world  has  already  been  delivered.  He  is  not  blind  to  the 
woeful  and  awful  sights  and  sounds  of  modern  civilization, 
and  yet  he  sings: 

The  good  of  ancient  times  let  others  state 
I  think  it  lucky  I  was  born  so  late. 

He  is  not  infatuated  with  yesterday,  neither  does  he  unduly 
extol  nor  depreciate  to-day,  nor  does  he  doubt  the  promise 
of  a  better  to-morrow.  But  he  believes  if  that  morrow 
ever  dawns  it  will  be  tli rough  the  faithful  and  earnest  en- 


16  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

deavors  of  those  who,  seeing  abuses,  injustice  and  corrup- 
tion, seek  by  tongue,  pen,  and  hand  their  utter  extermina- 
tion. With  this  end  before  him  he  has  written.  He 
confesses  at  the  outset  to  a  strong  bias  on  the  side  of  the 
poor,  the  illiterate,  and  despairing.  It  is  their  cause  he 
would  particularly  plead.  While  he  dare  not  go  as  far  as 
Basil,  and  say  "The  rich  are  thieves,"  or,  with  John 
Chrysostom,  assert  that  they  are  "brigands,"  and  that 
"everything  ought  to  be  in  common,"  he  yet  believes  that 
the  excessively  affluent  under  present  social  conditions  have 
too  much  power,  too  many  exclusive  privileges,  and,  in 
some  respects,  constitute  the  most  dangerous  class  of  the 
"dangerous  classes  "of  a  community.  He  has  found  it 
impossible  to  keep  from  his  mind  such  questions  as  per- 
plexed Bossuet  when  he  wrote:  "Why  should  one  fortun- 
ate mortal  live  in  abundance,  able  to  satisfy  his  every  little 
useless  fancy,  while  another,  every  whit  his  equal,  cannot 
maintain  his  poor  family,  or  even  procure  for  them  suffi- 
cient food  to  allay  the  gnawing  pangs  of  hunger?"  How 
frequently  has  this  and  similar  queries  agitated  and  con- 
fused mankind;  and  how  natural,  when  they  have  been 
considered,  for  thought  and  speech  to  champion  the  inter- 
ests of  the  wretched,  even  to  the  extent  of  doing  injustice 
to  the  favored.  This  extreme  partisanship  is  wrong.  The 
writer  of  these  words  is  fully  conscious  of  this;  and  yet, 
when  cruel  inequalities  force  themselves  on  his  attention, 
he  finds  himself  falling  into  it.  Perhaps  it  is  unavoidable. 
Certainly  the  wealthy  have  defenders  enough;  and  after  all, 
it  is  not  their  condition  Social  Science  seeks  to  improve, 
but  that  of  the  toiling,  straggling  masses.  God  knows  I 
would  not,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  speak  in  the  first  person, 
willingly  do  them  any  wrong.  But  I  am  honest  enough  to 
avow  my  sympathies.  They  are  on  the  side  of  the  lowly 
and  poor.  I  would  lighten  their  burdens,  I  would  dry 
their  tears,  I  would  diminish  their  sorrows,  increase  their 


PROUDHON'S  PRAYER.  17 

joys,  multiply  their  privileges,  stimulate  their  ambition,  and 
save  them  from  vice,  ignorance,  and  despair,  and  from  the 
equally  fatal  political  and  social  illusions  by  which  false 
friends  are  luring  them  to  ruin.  The  more  I  think  on 
their  deplorable  condition,  the  more  intently  do  I  find  my- 
self passionately  inquiring  with  Elliot: 

When  wilt  Thou  save  the  people? 

O,  God  of  Mercy,  when? 
The  people,  Lord,  the  people! 

Not  thrones  and  crowns,  but  men! 
Flowers  of  thy  heart,  O  God,  are  they! 
Let  them  not  pass  like  weeds  away, 
Their  heritage  a  sunless  day! 

God  save  the  people. 

And  now,  as  I  commit  to  the  public  my  reflections  on 
the  Principles,  Practices,  and  Problems  of  Society,  in  which 
I  have  pointed  out  the  elevation  that  may  be  reached,  the 
prosperity  that  may  be  mastered,  and  the  freedom  that  may 
be  attained,  may  I  not  hope  for  a  careful  reading  and  a 
candid  judgment?  I  have  tried  to  put  my  soul  in  my 
book,  and  now,  as  it  goes  forth  on  its  mission,  I  cannot 
but  imitate  Proudhon,  and  invoke  the  Divine  blessing 
to  attend  it.  Nor  can  language  of  mine  as  adequately 
represent  the  spirit  in  which  I  have  written,  or  the  deep 
emotions  by  which  I  have  been  moved,  or  the  dependence  I 
have  felt  on  the  Unseen  Being  for  success  in  my  undertak- 
ing, as  that  of  this  same  Proudhon,  who  closed  his  remark- 
able Memoire  on  Property  with  these  striking  and  sublime 
petitions: 

O,  God  of  Liberty!  God  of  Equality!  Thou  God,  who  hast 
placed  in  my  heart  the  sentiment  of  justice  before  my  reason  compre- 
hended it,  hear  my  ardent  prayer.  Thou  hast  formed  my  thought, 
Ihou  hast  directed  my  studies,  thou  hast  separated  my  spirit  from 
curiosity  and  my  heart  from  attachment,  in  order  that  I  should  pub- 
lish the  truth  before  the  master  and  the  slave.  I  have  spoken  as  thou 
hast  given  me  the  power  and  talent;  it  remains  for  thee  to  complete 

2 


18  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL   LIEE. 

thy  work.  Thou  knowest  whether  I  may  have  sought  my  interest  or 
glory.  O  God  of  Liberty!  may  my  memory  perish  if  humanity  may 
but  be  free;  if  I  may  but  see  in  my  obscurity  the  people  finally  in- 
structed, if  noble  instructors  but  enlighten  it,  if  disinterested  hearts 
but  guide  it!  *  *  *  Then  the  great  and  the  small,  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  will  unite  in  one  ineffable  fraternity;  and  all  to- 
gether, chanting  a  new  hymn,  will  re-erect  thy  altar,  O  God  of  lib- 
erty and  equality. 

Dr.  Draper,  in  his  Conflict  Betiveen  Religion  and  Sci- 
ence, ascribes  the  wonderful  changes  of  modern  times  to  an 
extraordinary  development  of  "individualism"  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  lie  finds  its  embodiment  in  a  sturdy 
German  monk  —  Luther  —  who  asserted  its  rights  under 
theological  forms;  and  if  he  had  searched  farther  he  would 
have  found  it  being  clothed  in  the  robes  of  philosophy  by 
another  German  —  Leibnitz.  Great  indeed  was  this  revo- 
lution. It  is  well  known  that  the  old  governments  were 
essentially  paternal  in  character,  just  as  Russia  is  today. 
They  regarded  all  citizens  as  members  of  the  body  politic, 
and  the  King  or  Emperor  as  the  head,  the  duty  of  the  one 
being  to  submit,  and  the  right  of  the  other  being  to  rule 
and  judge.  The  chief  legislated  for  his  subjects,  deter- 
mined their  religious  faith  for  them,  prescribed  their  con- 
duct, fixed  their  wages,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  regulate 
their  food  and  apparel.  When  Bossuet,  under  Louis  XIV., 
taught  that  "  Kings  are  gods,  and  share  in  a  manner  the 
Divine  independence;"  and  when  Hobbes  sanctioned  the 
notion  of  unlimited  sovereignty,  it  is  evident  no  bounds 
could  be  set  to  governmental  powers  and  demands;  and 
that,  as  in  Peru,  the  Inca  "  was  the  source  from  which 
everything  flowed,"  and  as  in  Dahome  all  men  are  slaves  to 
the  monarch,  so  the  personality  of  the  citizen  must  have 
been  ignored  and  practically  nullified  by  the  organized 
tyranny  of  the  absolute  authority  which  these  celebrated 
authors  approved.  Where  it  reigned,  freedom  of  thought, 


PATERNALISM.  19 

freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  conscience,  with  all  other 
natural  and  inalienable  rights,  were  necessarily  treated  with 
disdain  and  contempt.  Traces  of  this  principle  are  still  to 
be  found  in  some  of  the  most  civilized  nations  of  Europe; 
and  a  new  tendency  in  the  same  direction  appears  in  Com- 
munism, which,  substituting  the  State  for  the  king,  would 
have  the  individual  owned  by  the  former  instead  of  the 
latter;  for,  as  Herbert  Spencer  teaches,  his  personal  liberty 
must  be  sacrificed  in  proportion  as  his  mental,  moral  and 
material  welfare  becomes  the  care  of  the  Commonwealth. 
But  while  remnants  of  antique  "  Paternalism "  survive, 
and  while  efforts  are  being  made  to  revive  it  in  a  more  popu- 
lar form,  the  revolt  from  it  which  distinguished  the  over- 
throw of  feudalism,  the  rise  of  constitutional  government 
in  England,  and  the  revolutions  in  America  and  France, 
was  too  determined  and  radical  for  a  reactionary  movement 
to  promise  encouraging  progress.  The  peril  and  evil  of 
our  times,  particularly  in  this  country,  are  rather  of  an 
opposite  character. 

Emancipation  from  the  political  and  social*  regime  of 
the  past  necessarily  carried  with  it  enlarged,  and,  perhaps, 
exaggerated  notions  regarding  the  importance  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Hence,  we  hear  little  else  to  day  than  cries,  pro- 
testations, and  declarations  about  personal  rights:  rights  of 
property,  rights  of  conscience,  rights  of  labor,  rights  of 
capital,  rights  of  women,  rights  of  children,  rights  of  trade, 
and  other  rights  too  innumerable  for  specific  mention  here, 
which  are  being  so  highly  extolled  as  to  overshadow  the 
sense  of  duty,  fill  the  air  with  the  loud  echo  of  their  de- 
mands, and  are  bringing  classes,  sexes,  and  pursuits  into 
deadly  hostility.  In  a  word,  modern  liberty  has  so  power- 
fully stimulated  individualism  that  it  has  actually  grown 
into  egoism,  and  the  result  is  intense  sordidness,  compara- 
tive disregard  for  the  welfare  of  others,  and  the  supremacy 
of  business  maxims  subversive  of  that  Gospel  which,  accord- 


&0  STt*i)IES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

ing  to  Sissy  Jupe,  reveals  the  first  principle  of  Political 
Economy  in  the  Golden  Rule — "  Do  unto  others  as  ye  would 
they  should  do  unto  you."  Even  the  benevolence  of  the 
age  is  largely  tainted  by  this  morbid  spirit.  The  philoso- 
phers in  several  instances  have  contributed  to  this  drift 
from  the  fair  ideal  of  brotherhood,  and  of  brotherly  sacri- 
fice, which  it  was  Christ's  purpose  to  actualize  among  men. 
Hobbes  maintains  that  in  doing  good  to  others  our  ultimate 
aim  is  really  to  do  good  to  ourselves,  and  that,  consequently, 
what  we  call  love  for  others  is  simply  love  for  oneself. 
Mandeville  and  Helvetius  adopt  a  similar  view;  and  it  has 
so  far  permeated  current  thought  that  much  of  our  philan- 
thropy is  merely  a  refined  species  of  selfishness,  a  method 
of  gratifying  ourselves  by  gratifying  somebody  else.  The 
greatness,  the  profitableness,  the  loveliness,  the  luxury  of 
kindness,  generosity  and  sympathy  are  insisted  on  too 
strongly  for  the  sweets  of  real  disinterestedness  to  be  tasted 
by  our  generation.  In  a  very  large  number  of  cases  pecuni- 
ary aid  can  only  be  obtained  for  the  poor,  or  for  humani- 
tarian movements  and  public  enterprises  by  a  covert  appeal 
to  the  vanity  or  conceit  of  the  donors.  They  are  usually 
flattered  extensively,  and  sometimes  excessively;  their  de- 
sire for  personal  happiness  is  skillfully  excited;  their  crav- 
ing for  the  approval  and  applause  of  their  fellow-beings  is 
judiciously  nursed  and  fondled,  and  they  are  thus  persuaded 
into  doing  what  they  would  otherwise  leave  unattempted. 
Others  have  natures  peciiliarly  susceptible.  They  are  easily 
affected  to  pain  by  recitals  of  sorrows  and  sufferings,  and 
often  extend  a  helping  hand  more  to  allay  their  own  storm- 
ful  feelings  than  to  minister  to  calm  elsewhere.  As  in 
benevolence,  so  in  right-living,  self-interest  is  not  merely 
acknowledged  to  be  the  ruling  principle,  but  is  .gloried  in 
as  the  supreme  law  which  all  are  bound  to  obey.  Integ- 
rity, temperance,  and  faithfulness  to  obligations  are  com- 
mended as  contributing  to  the  welfare  and  peace  of  those 


ETHICS  OF  SELFISHNESS.  21 

who  regard  them,  and,  therefore,  as  preferable  to  their  op- 
posites.     The_jDpjicj_£f^£igli^ 


right>dping,  is  uppermost  in  the  majority  of  minds,  and 
practical  ethics  are  reduced  to  the  low  level  of  a  scheme  to 
check,  balance  and  adjust  the  operations  of  practical  sel- 
fishness. Manifestly,  Hobbes  is  in  the  ascendant;  but,  not- 
withstanding the  unhappy  prevalence  of  his  theory,  it  is 
base  and  unsound.  It  is  possible,  whatever  his  school  of 
philosphy  may  say  to  the  contrary,  to  be  moved  to  right 
deeds  and  good  deeds  by  higher  and  nobler  considerations 
than  its  teachings  allow.  As  Bishop  Butler  has  shown  in 
his  own  vigorous  way,  "If  sympathy  with  another  is  to  be 
construed  into  self-love  because  it  is  I  who  feel  it,  then  by 
the  same  rule  my  admiration  and  praise  of  another  must  be 
resolved  into  self-praise  and  self-admiration,  and  I  am  the 
whole  time  delighted  with  myself,  to  wit,  with  my  own 
thoughts  and  feelings,  while  I  pretend  to  be  delighted  with 
another."  Assuredly  deep  feeling  in  behalf  of  suffering 
may  arise  without  any  thought  of  self,  just  as  in  the  case 
of  true  homage  to  genius;  but  it  may  be  enough  to  say  in 
reply  to  every  elaborate  defense  of  this  calculating  morality, 
that  agreeableness  and  usefulness  are  not  ethical  concep- 
tions at  all.  What  a  man  does  merely  because  it  is  agreeable 
or  advantageous,  common  sense  decides  is  not  necessarily 
virtuous.  Such  a  basis  of  conduct  tends  to  subvert  morality, 
and  hence  the  rapid  spread  of  insincerity,  lieartlessness,  char- 
latanry and  corruption,  during  recent  years.  And  while  it 
thus  pollutes  the  springs  of  social  life  it  fosters  lawlessness, 
rudeness  and  anarchy  in  the  State.  Individualism  devel- 
oped into  windy,  blatant,  self-infatuated  egoism,  brooks 
but  little  control  on  the  part  of  constituted  authorities;  and 
recognizing  no  personage  greater  than  self,  and  no  obliga- 
tions higher  than  those  which  impel  self  to  secure  first 
and  last  the  interests  of  self,  it  takes  care  to  do  as  little  as 
possible  for  the  general  welfare  of  the  community.  It  is 


22  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

not  only  its  own  pope,  it  is  also  its  own  president  and  chief- 
justice  as  well.  Respect,  reverence,  obedience,  are  virtues 
it  never  cultivates,  and  without  these  civic  order  is  difficult, 
if  not  impossible.  Carlyle,  has  said,  r*It  is  not  by  mechan- 
ism, but  by  religion;  not  by  self-interest,  but  by  loyalty, 
that  men  are  governed  or  governable,%nd  we  are  therefore 
warranted  in  expressing  apprehensions  that  unless  the  pres- 
ent abnormal  growth  of  individualism  can  be  arrested  we 
shall  wake  up  at  last  to  scenes  of  strife  and  suffering  as 
terrible  and  horrible  as  any  which  have  disgraced  the 
annals  of  our  race. 

To  avert  these"  possible  calamities,  an  effort  should  be 
made  before  it  is  too  late  to  arouse  Society  to  a  distinct 
and  intense  consciousness  of  its  solidarity.  By  this  we  do 
not  mean  to  advocate  the  opposite  extreme,  the  undue  de- 
preciation of  individualism,  or  to  recommend  that  it  be 
superseded  by  excessive  government  control  ;  but  that  the 
close  and  permanent  relations  between  the  unit  and  the 
totality  of  mankind  should  be  pointed  out,  and  their  bear- 
ings for  good  and  evil  be  clearly  and  sharply  displayed. 
We  admit  that  we  are  employing  a  term  to  express  this 
thought  of  very  doubtful  character.  The  French,  from 
whose  language  it  is  derived,  usually  inscribe  it  on  the  ban- 
ners of  Socialism  to  denote  its  distinctive  principles  ;  but  we 
do  not  adopt  the  word  for  any  such  purpose.  "We  have  not 
in  mind  any  form  of  Society  when  we  suggest  that  it  con- 
tains an  antidote  to  the  mischievous  egoism  of  our  day. 
Real  and  true  "  solidarity  "  is  not  an  affair  of  state-craft, 
not  an  artificial  arrangement  to  equalize  the  .citizens  of  a 
Commonwealth;  but  is  rather  that  mysterious,  natural 
principle  which  weaves  one  human  personality  in  with 
another,  and  which  blends,  combines,  and  almost  consoli- 
dates them  together.  The  fact  is,  inexplicable  links  unite 
the  separate  and  separable  members  of  our  race,  and  its 
aggregate  is  more  than  a  formal  mechanical  organization  of 


THE    PRESENT   AND   THE    PAST.  23 

multitudinous  parts.  There  is  such  a  necessary,  vital, 
inner,  and  spiritual  coalescence  between  its  members,  such 
an  indivisibility  of  interests  and  indissolvableness  of  rela- 
tions, that  its  wholeness  is  as  one  huge  body,  having  a  com- 
mon consciousness  and  a  common  soul.  The  Apostle  Paul 
employs  this  figure  when  referring  to  a  special  and  particu- 
lar fellowship:  "For  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many 
members,  and  all  tbe  members  of  that  one  body,  being 
many,  are  one  body,  so  also  is  Christ;"  and  "whether  one 
member  suffer  all  the  members  suffer  with  it,  or  one  mem- 
ber be  honored  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it — "  a  repre- 
sentation as  applicable  to  Society  as  it  is  to  that- segment  of 
which  the  church  is  composed.  To  vary  the  illustration, 
individuality  may  be  compared  to  the  distinct  waves  that 
rise  and  fall  while  social  unity  may  be  likened  to  the  undi- 
vided ocean  of  which  the  billows  form  a  part;  it  may  be 
compared  to  the  stars  that  shed  radiance  on  the  earth,  while 
social  wholeness  may  be  likened  to  the  light  from  whence 
they  derive  their  common  lustre;  the  first  is  as  the  leaves 
and  branches  of  a  tree,  the  second  is  as  the  tree  itself;  the 
first  is  as  the  wheat  and  tares,  the  second  is  as  the  roots 
inextricably  intertwined  and  interlaced. 

Of  the  reality  of  the  doctrine  thus  defined,  and 
of  its  preeminent  importance,  there  can  hardly  be  any 
question.  Let  us  not  forget  that  we  of  the  present  are 
creations  of  the  past.  What  we  are,  whether  for  weal  or 
woe,  is  largely  due  to  the  generations  gone.  Our  roots  are 
in  former  times,  and  the  direction  of  our  growth  is  deter- 
mined by  influences  that  blow  from  the  realms  of  the  dead. 
If  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  force  is  true,  that  no 
physical  energy  is  wasted  and  no  material  element  is  de- 
structible, but  only  convertible,  and  transformable,  then  it 
must  follow  that  no  thought,  idea,  or  endeavor  is  perish- 
able. And  if  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces  of  the 
world  are  as  durable  as  the  physical,  being  only  susceptible 


24  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

to  modifications  and  transmutations.,  then  we  who  live  in 
this  age  have  been  shaped  and  directed  by  the  inexhausti- 
ble energies  of  ages  ended.  We  are  thus  identified  with 
humanity  from  the  very  beginning  of  its  existence.  Not 
all  our  art  or  skill  can  dissever  the  connection.  Try  as  we 
may  to  rend  the  tie,  we  shall  still  find  it  to  be  impossible. 
In  vain  shall  we  strive  to  extricate  ourselves  from  the  past. 
In  our  thinking,  feeling,  planning,  working,  it  will  in 
spite  of  us  obtrude  itself,  and  at  times  will  perplex  us  to 
decide  whether  we  really  belong  to  this  era  or  to  one  lying 
in  the  morning  twilight  of  history.  But  not  only  are  we 
subject  to  influences  whose  origin  is  hidden  in  the  re- 
mote antiquity,  Ave  also  inherit  from  our  ancestors  taints 
and  tendencies,  mental  and  bodily  peculiarities  and  char- 
acteristics. "The  fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the 
children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge."  Yes,  the  moral  as  well 
as  physical  current  flows  from  sire  to  son.  In  that  mys- 
terious chamber  where  life  is  elaborated,  the  likeness  of  the 
parent,  with  more  or  less  accuracy,  is  transmitted  to  the 
child,  as  the  face  of  a  man  is  imprinted  on  the  photo- 
grapher's plate,  hidden  in  the  darkness  of  the  camera. 
Each  birth  is  as  the  restoration  of  some  old  portrait  ;  a 
process  that  revives  faded  colors,  and  that  once  more  fixes 
the  outlines  of  features  that  had  well  nigh  become  indis- 
tinct. Whatever  theoretical  objections  we  may  entertain 
to  this  law,  it  is  as  unquestionable  as  the  law  of  gravitation. 
The  hypothesis  of  the  evolutionists  derives  its  greatest  de- 
gree of  probability  from  this  certainty.  Heredity  underlies 
the  reasoning  both  of  Darwin  and  Spencer,  and  without  it 
their  conclusions  would  lack  even  the  shadow  of  a  founda- 
tion. We  need  hardly  remind  you  that  the  Bible  confirms 
this  view,  and  in  the  clearest  terms  insists  on  the  transmis- 
sibility  not  merely  of  physical,  but  of  moral  qualities  as 
well.  Corruption,  scrofulousness,  and  general  viciousness 
may  be  in  the  blood;  but  they  may  as  truly  be  in  the  spirit. 


-THE    LAW    OF    DESCENT.  25 

Predisposition  to  righteousness,  devoutness  of  soul,  or  men- 
tal aptness  for  particular  pursuits  may  at  an  early  period 
discover  itself  in  the  child,  and  not  unfrequently  be  traced 
to  its  progenitors.  And  what,  as  George  Eliot  has  so  well 
argued,  can  be  more  reasonable?  For 

Shall  the  trick  of  nostril  and  of  lips 

Descend  through  generations,  and  the  soul 

That  moves  within  our  frame  like  God  in  worlds — 

Convulsing,  urging,  melting,  withering — 

Imprint  no  record,  leave  no  documents 

Of  her  great  history? 

There  can  be  but  one  answer  to  the  question.  If  the 
doctrine  of  descent  is  true  at  all,  the  spiritual  must  be  as 
transmissible  as  the  physical;  and  if  we  in  the  present  are 
the  receptacles  of  the  past,  and  if  the  future  cannot  but  re- 
ceive the  present,  then  is  one  generation  indeed  bound  up 
in  all  the  others,  and  the  solidarity  of  humanity  is  a  very 
real  and  a  very  solemn  fact. 

Additional  considerations  must,  we  think,  increase  the 
force  of  this  conclusion.  Take  the  race  at  any  one  period 
of  its  existence,  say  our  own,  and  observe  how  close  the  re- 
lations are  that  unite  its  myriad  members,  and  how  the 
well-being  of  one  is  interwoven  with  the  prosperity  of  all. 
Dr.  South  wisely  said:  "If  indeed  a  man  could  be  wicked 
and  a  villain  to  himself  alone,  the  mischief  would  be  so 
much  the  more  tolerable."  But  that  is  impossible.  As 
the  apostle  wrote,  "no  man  liveth  to  himself,"  so  no  man 
sinneth  to  himself  alone.  His  waywardness  involves  the 
innocent,  compromises  and  afflicts  those  who  have  faith- 
fully reproved  him  for  his  course.  The  drunkard  impov- 
erishes his  family,  the  gambler  disgraces  it,  and  the  crim- 
inal brings  upon  it  that  ban  which  oftentimes  is  so 
undeserved,  and  which  is  yet  enforced  so  mercilessly. 
Like  a  stone  falling  in  the  mire,  that  besplashes  the  unfor- 
tunate bystander,  the  descent  of  the  good  into  evil  bespat- 


26  STUDIES    IX   SOCIAL    LIFE. 

ters  his  relatives  and  friends.  Their  garments  are  befouled 
with  his  befoulment;  and  the  shame  which  he  has  merited 
they  frequently  feel  more  keenly  than  he  does  or  can. 
The  only  relief  to  this  dark  fact  is  that  on  the  other  side 
the  operation  of  this  law  is  equally  apparent.  "If  one 
member  be  honored,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it ; "  if 
"one  sinner  does  much  harm,"  one  righteous  man  does 
much  good.  He  who  wins  for  himself  an  honorable  name 
cannot,  if  he  would,  retain  its  lustre  to  himself.  It  will 
irradiate  those  who  are  allied  to  him,  and  if  it  does  not 
do  so  irresistibly  his  friends  will  take  good  care  to 
place  themselves  in  the  way  of  its  brightness.  If  you 
want'  to  know  how  numerous  your  relatives  are,  acquire 
fame  or  wealth,  or  obtain  the  nomination  to  high  political 
office,  and  you  will  speedily  be  amazed  at  the  extent  of  your 
family.  "  What!  Avill  the  line  stretch  out  to  the  crack  of 
doom?"  I  can  readily  conceive  a  successful  aspirant  for 
presidential  dignity  exclaiming,  as  his  eye  wanders  despair- 
ingly over  the  multitude  who  claim  some  degree  of  fellow- 
ship with  his  blood.  But,  even  apart  from  such  self-evi- 
dent selfishness,  the  nobility  achieved  by  one  is  shared  by 
many.  Father  and  mother  feel  the  triumph  of  their  son 
as  though  it  were  their  own,  and  carry  themselves  with  a 
prouder  air  because  it  has  been  won;  and  many  a  child  of 
renowned  parentage  rests  with  serene  satisfaction  on  the 
laurels  wherewith  his  house  is  crowned,  nor  makes  the 
least  endeavor  to  increase  its  glory.  Even  entire  com- 
munities have  a  sense  of  elevation  when  one  of  their  num- 
ber performs  some  notable  feat  or  makes  some  remarkable 
discovery.  We  rejoice  to  belong  to  the  race  whose  history 
is  distinguished  by  the  names  of  such  men  as  Hampden, 
Shakspeare,  Washington,  Franklin,  Morse,  Bryant,  and 
Stephenson.  The  realization  of  their  greatness  somehow 
ministers  to  our  own.  They  seem  to  be  part  of  ourselves, 


INTKKDK1'ENDKN<  H.  27 

as  though  we  lived  in  their  life,  and  as  though  in  some  in- 
explicable way  our  being  merged  itself  in  theirs. 

Have  you  ever  explored  the  significance  of  our  interde- 
pendence in  Jabor?  Many  workers  are  indispensable  to 
every  important  result,  whether  it  be  social,  religious,  politi- 
cal, or  mechanical.  There  is  no  invention  that  can  be 
ascribed  solely  to  one  mind,  no  revolution  and  no  reform 
that  can  be  credited  to  one  individual,  just  as  there  is  no 
community  whose  welfare  is  separable  from  diversity.  We 
are  in  the  habit  of  recognizing  some  conspicuous  person 
as  the  author  of  important  movements,  but  there  is  never 
one  who  deserves  to  be  lifted  up  so  high  that  in  fixing 
on  him  eyes  of  admiration  his  co-workers  should  be 
overlooked.  '  But  for  them  he  never  would  have  succeeded, 
as  but  for  him  all  their  toil  would  or  might  have  been  in 
vain.  Mrs.  Browning  writes: 

'Twill  employ 

Seven  men,  they  say,  to  make  a  perfect  pin: 
Who  makes  the  h^ad,  content  to  miss  the  point, 
Who  makes  the  point,  agreed  to  leave  the  joint; 
And  if  a  man  should  cry,  "  I  want  a  pin, 
And  I  must  make  it  straightway,  head  and  point," 
His  wisdom  is  not  worth  the  pin  he  wants. 
Seven  men  to  a  pin,  and  not  a  man  too  much. 

And  how  many  for  a  newspaper,  a  railroad,  a  steamboat, 
a  factory,  an  invention,  a  discovery,  a  reform,  or  a  revolu- 
tion? How  many  to  direct,  sustain,  and  shape  that  com- 
plicated machinery  called  civilization?  One  industry  is 
dependent  on  another,  and  "the  eye"  of  the  inventor 
"  can  not  say  to  the  hand "  of  the  mechanic,  "  I  have 
no  need  of  thee;"  "nor  again  the  head  "of  the  thinker 
"to  the  feet"  of  the  toiler,  " I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nay, 
much  more,  those  members  of  the  body,  which  seem  to  be 
more  feeble,  are  necessary."  The  writer  can  not  say  to 
the  "printer,  I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nor  the  manufacturer 


28  STUDIES  .IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

to  the  producer,  I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nor  the  architect 
to  the  builder,  I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nor  the  jeweler  to 
the  miner,  I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nor  the  miner  to  the 
smelter,  I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nor  the  merchant  to  the 
trader,  I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nor  the  citizen  to  the  states- 
man, I  have  no  need  of  thee;  nor  the  navigator  to  the 
astronomer,  I  have  no  need  of  thee.  Nor,  indeed,  can  any 
calling,  however  high,  say  to  any,  however  low,  I  have  no 
need  of  thee;  for  they  are  all  so  mortised,  dovetailed,  and 
sutured  into  each  other,  so  ingrafted  and  intertwisted,  that 
the  suspension  of  the  one  would  jeopardize  the  rest.  And 
if  to  this  interdependence  we  add  the  reality  of  sympathy, 
whose  waves  like  the  currents  of  atmosphere  and  seas  which 
course  about  our  globe,  reviving  and  refreshing,  flow  from 
heart  to  heart,  and  even  from  land  to  land,  making  all 
sorrows  common  and  all  sufferings  personal,  while  they  bear 
on  their  bosom  strength  and  comfort,  the  doctrine  of  solid- 
arity will  be  so  fully  confirmed  that  henceforward  it  will 
become  a  vital  part  of  our  every-day  working  creed. 

To  us  it  is  singular  that  any  person  should  permit  ideas 
of  independence,  or  the  institutions  of  freedom,  or  any- 
thing else  to  obscure  the  inexorable  reality  of  this  principle 
in  social  relations.  Yet,  as  we  have  already  intimated, 
nothing  in  our  times  is  more  common.  Many  people  who 
acknowledge  its  abstract  truth  are  inexcusably  blind  to  its 
actual  operations  in  the  concrete,  and  seem  to  proceed  on 
the  supposition  that  it  is  not  practically  applicable  to  the 
welfare  and  advancement  of  humanity.  At  least  they 
justify  the  suspicion  that  they  believe  themselves  exempt 
from  personal  allegiance  to  the  law  of  solidarity,  and  may 
tamper  with  it,  and  disregard  it,  without  injury  to  com- 
munity or  detriment  to  themselves.  There  is  no  delusion 
more  fatal,  and  none  that  ought  to  be  more  unsparingly 
rebuked.  Consider  for  a  moment  how  utterly  impossible  it  is 
for  any  of  us  to  evade  all  responsibility  for  the  condition  of 


RESPONSIBILITY   FOR   OTHERS  29 

Society,  and  how  absolutely  futile  the  hope  that  we  can  live 
in  its  fellowship  and  yet  exercise  no  influence  on  its  destiny. 
•It  is  not  something  outside  of  ourselves,  something  from 
which  we  can  be  separated,  our  dreaming  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  We  may  retire  to  our  chamber  and  read 
accounts  of  royal  pageants,  of  kingly  splendors,  of  Vander- 
bilt  balls,  of  expensive  opera  festivals,  and  moralizing,  ex- 
claim, "Oh!  the  pomps  and  vanities  of  Society!"  as 
though  we  had  no  earthly  concern  in  these  brilliant  move- 
ments; or  we  may  meditate  on  political  struggles,  fraudu- 
lent elections,  rioting  in  the  streets,  battlings  in  the  east  or 
west,  outrages  committed  on  the  innocent,  and  wrongs  and 
cruelties  perpetrated  on  the  defenceless,  and  indignantly 
murmur  against  the  awful  things  that  go  on  in  Society,  as 
though  we  were  unharmed  by  them  and  necessarily  unblam- 
able for  them;  or  we  may  reflect  on  the  sufferings  of 
millions,  their  poverty,  anguish,  and  despair,  and  with 
tears  in  our  eyes  and  sorrow  in  our  heart,  declaim  against 
the  heartlessness  of  Society,  as  though  we  could  not  under 
any  circumstances  be  as  heartless  as  the  rest.  But  this 
frontier  line,  after  all,  is  purely  imaginary;  there  is  no  such 
abyss  between  ourselves  and  Society  as  we  suppose.  There 
is  not  a  change  in  its  affairs,  nor  an  evil  tolerated,  nor  a 
vice  defended,  nor  a  right  resisted,  nor  a  good  assailed,  in 
which  we  are  not  interested,  and  for  which  we  are  not 
more  or  less  accountable.  When  the  degraded  and  reckless 
classes  are  neglected,  and  their  unclean  habits  and  deprav- 
ed conduct  breed  malaria  and  death,  are  we  not  exposed  to 
peril,  and  if  we  fall  a  victim  to  their  irregularities  jnay  we 
not  simply  be  paying  the  penalty  of  our  selfish  disregard  of 
their  welfare?  Their  excesses  and  corruptions  may  murder 
as  surely  as  Cain  who  slew  his  brother  Abel;  but  in  this 
instance,  Abel  himself  may  be  largely  responsible  for  the 
crime.  A  low  moral  sense,  combined  with  ignorance  and 
passion,  may  seek  to  avenge  its  real  or  fancied  wrongs  by 


30  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

applying  dynamite,  not  only  to  public  buildings,  but  to  the 
inequalities  which  divide,  hoping  in  this  way  to  explode 
social  order  and  blow  up  the  very  throne  of  Providence. 
We  may  feel  no  concern  in  these  violent  proceedings,  may 
smile  complacently  on  their  partial  successes,  and  yet 
they  may  ultimately  shatter  and  consume  both  our  property 
and  life.  Thus,  then,  whether  we  like  it  or  not,  and 
whether  we  are  conscious  of  it  or  not,  the  law  of  solidarity 
asserts  itself  in  the  practical  affairs  of  the  world,  and  stub- 
bornly insists  that  neither  human  happiness  nor  prosperity 
can  be  realized  apart  from  its  recognition,  appliance  and 
general  utilization. 

The  opinion  prevails,  and  we  shall  not  controvert  it  at 
this  point,  if  at  all,  that  there  must  always  be  aristocracies  of 
blood  as  in  England,  of  culture  as  in  Germany,  or  of  money 
as  in  America.  Whatever  may  be  said  in  favor  of  them  sep- 
arately or  together,  they  are  alike  open  to  the  objection  that 
they  are  usually  self-conceited  and  self-contained,  and  being 
exempt  from  many  of  the  ills  of  life,  feel  exempt  also  from 
many  of  its  obligations.  The  feudal  barons  resisted  every 
encroachment  on  their  oppressive  privileges;  the  medieval 
priests  would  never  lessen  their  exactions,  though  multi- 
tudes were  on  the  verge  of  starvation;  the  French  nobility 
of  a  hundred  years  ago  resented  taxation  and  pleaded  their 
ancient  rights;  and  in  the  same  spirit  the  upper  classes  of 
today  are  unwilling  to  deny  themselves  various  indul- 
gences and  gratifications  for  the  sake  of  the  people.  Now 
as  in  the  past,  it  is  almost  a  gospel  with  them  that  every 
man  should  look  after  himself  first,  last,  and  altogether,  and 
should  never  hesitate  to  build  up  his  own  fortune  even  at 
the  expense  of  his  neighbors.  Indeed  they  are  so  self-satis- 
fied that  they  come  to  look  on  iniquities  and  wrongs  perpe- 
trated by  themselves  as  totally  distinct  in  character  from 
similar  deeds  committed  by  the  unthinking  and  degraded. 
Augustus  very  likely  saw  no  injustice  in  his  murderous  hate 


MANIFOLD   EXTREMES.  31 

against  Anthony,  when  having  divided  the  world  with  him 
and  Lepidus,  he  desired  his  death  that  he  might  reign  over 
it  alone;  Charlemagne  doubtless  palliated  his  cruel  conduct 
when  he  shut  up  his  brother  Carloman  in  a  cloister,  and  cut 
off  the  heads  of  all  Saxons  who  were  taller  than  his  sword 
was  long  that  he  might  thus  destroy  Whitikkind;  and  when 
Rufns  revolted,  and  Louis  XI.  rebelled  against  his  father, 
and  when  Richelieu  made  effective  his  policy  at  the  block 
in  the  Place  de  Greve,  and  when  Mazarine  proved  faithless 
to  the  exiled  Charles,  and  when  Louis  XV.  rioted  in  the 
Parc-au-cerfs,  they  all  unquestionably  had  fine  reasons 
and  smooth  extenuations  for  their  villanies,  massacres  and 
pollutions,  regarding  them  almost  as  virtues,  and  not  in 
any  way  to  be  identified  with  the  turbulence  of  the  Roman 
plebs,  the  low  and  vulgar  vices  of  the  serfs,  or  the  bloody 
and  heartless  crimes  of  the  Parisian  sans  culottes.  So  is  it 
still.  Many  capitalists  and  corporations,  Shylock-like,  must 
have  their  exact  pound  of  flesh  though  it  drain  the  last 
drop  of  blood  from  the  laboring  classes.  They  demand  enor- 
mous profits  and  build  up  colossal  fortunes  at  the  expense 
of  the  toiling  millions.  Experience  proves  that  the  plethoric 
coffers  and  palatial  palaces  of  the  small  minority  would  be 
impossibilities  but  for  the  impoverishment  of  the  great 
majority,  and  this  condition  of  things  indicates  pretty  clearly 
the  existence  of  manifold  cruelties  and  wrongs.  Horrible  and 
startling  contrasts  confront  us  on  every  hand.  The  splendid 
mansion  and  the  poor-house,  the  gorgeous  and  useless  club 
and  the  tramp's  wretched  lodgings,  the  wealthy  distiller  and 
the  pauperized  thousands  who  yield  his  princely  income, 
the  affluent  manufacturer  and  the  beggared  and  disheart- 
ened .throngs  on  whose  sweat  and  blood  he  fattens,  all 
go  to  show  that  injustice  prevails, and  that  some  men  are 
driving  in  the  spirit  of  a  Tamerlane,  over  the  hopes,  happi- 
ness and  honor  of  helpless  humanity  to  their  golden  goal. 
Commercial  leaders  do  not  always  hesitate  to  avail  them- 


32  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

selves  of  their  power  to  "corner"  provisions  and  other 
necessaries  of  life,  though  they  know  that  the  masses  of 
the  people  must  feel  more  keenly  than  the  few  the  results 
of  their  so-called  legitimate  "operations."  They  fre- 
quently derange  values,  break  up  the  business  of  their 
small  competitors,  cut  down  wages  that  they  may  pre- 
serve their  own  incomes,  and  carry  wide-spread  misery  and 
devastation  throughout  the  land.  Their  insatiable  greed 
robs  the  laborer  of  his  own,  deprives  him  of  his  Sabbath, 
draws  him  away  from  church,  and  degrades  him  to  the 
level  of  a  serf.  Xay  more,  their  grasping  oppressions  nec- 
essarily breed  indolence,  intemperance,  and  ignorance,  and 
crowd  our  jails  with  criminals,  and  our  asylums  with  im- 
beciles. Yet  these  capitalists  and  merchant  princes  are 
generally  unconscious  of  any  real  departure  from  the 
divine  law  which  should  govern  the  relations  of  man  to 
man,  and  are  so  self-satisfied  with  their  own  virtue  that 
they  have  assurance  enough  to  build  cathedrals  and  endow 
theological  seminaries  with  the  money  they  have  wrung 
from  the  toil  of  the  poor.  They  offer  beautiful  pleas,  and 
cogent  arguments  in  defense  of  their  conduct;  cogent  and 
beautiful  to  them,  but  quite  otherwise  to  those  who  are 
their  unfortunate  victims.  If  they  were  not  to  act  as  they 
do,  others  would,  and  therefore  they  cannot  be  wrong. 
Such  is  their  admirable  logic.  The  rights  of  capital  and 
its  sanctity  are  all  important,  and  therefore  they  ought  to 
accumulate  it,  and  keep  it  at  anv  sacrifice.  Such  is  their 
conclusive  reasoning.  Moreover,  are  they  not  to  reap  the 
fruit  of  their  intelligence,  forethought,  smartness  and 
acuteness,  because  others  cannot  rival  them?  Such  is  their 
unanswerable  Socratic  method.  Thus  a  Charlemagne 
might  reply  to  his  imprisoned  brother  in  his  cell,  or  a 
Richelieu  when  explaining  the  beneficence  of  the  heads- 
man's ax,  or  a  Louis  XV.  when  expounding  to  his  grum- 
bling subjects  the  moral  superiority  of  a  royal  seraglio  to  a 


THE   NEW   FEUDALISM.  33 

public  bagnio.  But  however  the  conduct  of  these  money- 
lords  may  be  viewed  by  others,  in  their  own  estimation  it  is 
not  to  be  classed  with  the  villainous  deeds  of  strikers,  with 
the  rapacious  demands  of  trades  unions,  and  with  the  ras- 
cally endeavors  of  cooperative  organizations  to  tax  capital  for 
the  advantage  of  the  producer.  No;  they  are  not  like 
these  vulgar  proletaires  and  roturiers.  They  may  not  be 
perfect,  but  they  imagine  they  are  of  finer  clay  than  their 
despised  neighbors,  and  certainly  never  sin  as  grossly  and 
abominably  as  the  Yahoo's  and  Fellahs  of  the  workshops 
do.  As  Holland  once  wrote,  their  sins  are  to  them  as 
their  fancy  dogs,  "poodle  sins — with  silky  white  hair — 
sins  held  in  by  a  social  collar  and  a  religious  ribbon — that 
bark  at  good  honest  dogs  while  their  eyes  are  red  with  the 
devil  in  them." 

Notwithstanding  these  fine  distinctions  some  of  us  are 
obliged  to  confess  that  we  can  perceive  no  very  marked  dif- 
ference between  the  iniquity  and  injustice  of  an  aristocrat 
and  of  a  plebian.  Why  Jay  Gould,  coining  money  by  "  fidu- 
ciary harlotry,"  should  be  regarded  as  a  very  worthy  indi- 
vidual indeed,  and  his  gardeners,  clamoring  for  an  advance 
of  wages  to  $1.50  a  day,  should  be  set  down  as  very  dan- 
gerous and  worthless  characters,  we  never  could  quite  un- 
derstand :  but  there  is  one  thing  that  we  do  see  and  cannot 
fail  to  see — it  is  that  the  selfish  political  economy  of  the  rich 
is  as  disastrous  to  the  best  interests  of  Society,  and  their  ex- 
travagance and  viciousness  as  demoralizing,  as  the  violence, 
the  socialistic  agitations,  and  even  the  stupid  dynamite  policy 
of  the  poor.  The  proof  of  this  comes  to  us  from  every  side. 
Newspapers  write  of  a  "new  feudalism/' which  means  as 
well  a  "new  serfdom,"  and  impartial  students  of  their  times 
not  only  show  how  the  masses  are  being  pauperized,  but  how 
they  are  suffering  morally  and  physically.  Samuel  Royce 
and  Henry  George  have  not  overcolored  the  picture  of 
"man's  inhumanity  to  man;"  but  even  if  we  doubt  their 
3 


34  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

testimony  a  little  reflection  will  convince  the  most  skeptical, 
the  principle  of  solidarity  being  true,  that  the  influence  of 
our  parvenu  patricians  and  mercenary  magnificoes,  charged 
as  it  is  through  and  through  with  shabbiness,  faithlessness, 
meanness,  knavishness  and  heartlessness,  must  inevitably  be 
pernicious  and  mischievous.  As  streams  flow  down  hills  and 
submerge  the  plains,  and  as  heavy  lowering  clouds  descend 
and  envelop  earth,  so  the  conduct  and  example  of  the  so- 
called  upper  classes  must  invariably  affect  the  lower.  Thus 
we  are  not  surprised  when  princes  of  the  blood  and  peers  of 
the  realm  in  Europe  make  light  of  marriage  vows  and  invent 
euphonious  names  to  disguise  adultery,  and  do  not  blush  to 
appear  uproariously  intoxicated  in  public,  that  the  common 
people  should  fail  to  perceive  anything  very  heinous  in  beat- 
ing a  wife  or  in  becoming  crazily  drunk.  Formerly  we  simple 
republicans  desired  to  know  the  nobles  of  England;  but  of 
late  so  many  disreputable  things  have  been  related  of  them 
in  their  own  journals  that  our  self-respect  would  hardly 
allow  us  now  to  make  their  acquaintance;  but,  what  is  even 
worse  than  their  own  indecency,  they  arc  breeding  indecency 
all  around  them.  Mathew  Arnold,  if  we  remember  right,  has 
spoken  of  them  as  "materialized,"  and  has  added  that  the 
middle  classes  are  "vulgarized  "  and  the  lower  "  brutalized. " 
If  he  had  substituted  "sensualized"  for  "materialized"  he 
would  have  come  nearer  the  truth,  and  would  have  furnished 
an  explanation  of  the  moral  deterioration  of  the  humbler 
orders.  But  our  own  gentry  do  not  seem  to  be  much 
better.  In  the  highest  circles  of  Washington  two  winters 
ago  during  an  elegant  reception  a  brawl  occurred  in  the 
dressing  room,  and  an  American  gentleman  ( ?)  struck  an  un- 
offending foreign  representative;  and  another  at  a  fashion- 
able gathering  was  so  tipsy  that  he  actually  rested  his  head 
on  the  shoulder  of  a  fat  dowager  and  went  to  sleep  there; 
and  yet  we  affect  amazement  at  the  constantly  recurring 
bar-room  fights  and  the  maudlin  helplessness  of  clerks  and 


SOCIAL  HILLS   AND   VALES.  35 

mechanics.  Distinguished  men,  like  Koscoe  Conkling,  .we 
are  told  by  reliable  journals,  patronize  and  enjoy  pugilistic 
encounters,  and  if  this  is  the  case  we  can  readily  understand 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  their  suppression.  A  young 
lady  related  recently  that  in  answering  advertisements  for 
office- work  of  various  kinds  in  Chicago  she  had  not  found  one 
which  failed  to  have  behind  it  an  insulting  proposal ;  and 
another  stated  that  after  a  hard  week  of  sewing  in  a  large  dry- 
goods  establishment  she  was  handed  two  dollars;  nor  was 
she  incompetent,  for  subsequently  she  obtained  employment 
elsewhere  at  twelve  dollars  a  week.  Yet  we  wonder  that  the 
social  evil  increases;  that  women  are  driven  to  vicious  courses, 
and  that  young  men  are  blindly  led  by  them  into  all  kinds 
of  dissipation;  but,  after  all,  there  is  no  occasion  for  surprise. 
There  is  hardly  any  mystery  about  these  sad  departures  from 
purity  and  rectitude.  As  fire  kindles  fire,  and  as  conta- 
gion spreads  disease,  so  by  an  unalterable  providential 
arrangement  the  example  of  the  high  and  prominent  con- 
taminates the  lowly  and  obscure.  However  "blue  "  may  be 
the  blood,  and  however  exclusive  the  life  and  supercilious 
and  purse-proud  the  bearing  of  the  former,  they  are  so 
bound,  allied  and  related  to  the  latter  that  they  can  no  more 
refrain  from  swaying,  influencing  and  molding  them,  than 
the  mountain  ranges  can  cease  to  pour  their  floods  and  the 
debris  of  the  rocks  upon  the  plains  smiling  at  their  base. 
The  very  height  of  the  hills  renders  this  inundation  more 
imminent  and  even  certain.  So,  likewise,  superiority  of 
station  and  elevation  of  rank  add  immeasurably  to  the  power 
of  men  to  determine  the  condition  and  character  of  their 
fellow  beings,  especially  as  the  traditions  of  centuries  and  the 
instinct  of  self-interest  incline  the  indignant  and  ignorant  to 
respect  and  imitate  the  affluent  and  intelligent.  Science  is 
attempting  to  demonstrate  the  unity  of  nature,  declaring 
that  it  is  so  truly  one  that  all  forces  are  but  modifications 
of  one  force  and  all  substances  but  forms  of  one  substance; 


36  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

and  so  we  come  by  the  line  of  thought  just  pursued  back 
to  our  starting  point — the  unity  of  humanity — and  to  the 
conclusion  that  as  there  can  be  no  adequate  science  of  the 
physical  universe  which  does  not  take  into  account  its  one- 
ness, so  there  can  be  no  sufficient  scheme  of  Society,  and  no 
successful  plans  for  its  amelioration,  that  are  not  based  on 
its  solidarity. 

A  Frenchman  quotes  Schiller  as  saying,  "  L'  Histoireest 
le  Tribunal  du  monde,"  and  we  are  more  than  willing  that 
the  conclusion  we  have  reached  should  be  brought  to  this 
tribunal  for  adjudication.  Unless  we  are  greatly  mistaken 
we  shall  not  find  written  against  it  "  Adhuc  sub  judice  Us 
est,"  but  rather  shall  learn  that  the  plebiscite  of  history  has 
been  unanimously  in  its  favor.  Let  us  see.  Carlyle  graph- 
ically describes  the  stately  processioning  at  Versailles  early 
in  May,  1789,  when  some  fourteen  hundred  gentlemen 
marched  before  the  eyes  of  as  many  thousands.  Six  hundred 
of  these  solemn  dignitaries  were  dressed  in  black  and  be- 
longed to  that  'Tiers  etat,  the  Third  Estate,  which  had  taken 
no  part  in  public  affairs  since  1614,  and  had  not  taken  much 
part  then.  What  they  could  do  to  remedy  existing  evils  in 
France  no  one  knew,  but  it  was  evident  the  State  could  not 
be  much  longer  navigated  without  them.  The  effort  had 
been  made  and  had  failed,  just  as  the  exclusive  programme 
which  they  adopted  June  17,  when  they  declared  themselves 
to  be  the  National  Assembly,  was  destined  to  humiliating 
defeat.  Both  the  royal  decree  convening  them  and  their 
own  blunder  in  attempting  to  dispense  with  the  cooperation 
of  the  other  estates  of  the  realm  demonstrated  that  the  in- 
terests of  Society  are  so  closely  interwoven,  and  are  so  iden- 
tical, that  no  class  or  order  of  the  people  can  be  ignored 
with  impunity.  The  rise  and  progress  of  Constitutional  gov- 
ernment from  the  days  of  Earl  Simon  de  Montford  to  the 
present  prove  the  same  thing.  That  aggressive  noble  the 
the  year  after  the  battle  of  Lewis,  1264,  succeeded  in 


LABOR   LEGISLATION.  37 

calling  the  Great  Council  which  combined  all  the  elements 
of  Parliament  to  deliberate  on  national  affairs  and  to  impose 
restrictions  on  the  royal  prerogative.  The  summoning  of 
this  Council,  and  the  recognition  by  Edward,  1297,  of  the 
Common's  right  to  vote  supplies,  mark  an  important  epoch 
in  the  annals  of  England;  but  what  is  more  to  our  purpose 
they  reveal  a  deep  conviction,  or  at  least  an  instinctive  im- 
pression, that  the  welfare  of  each  body  of  citizens  is  so  in- 
separably bound  up  with  the  welfare  of  the  other  that  legis- 
lation ought  to  concern  itself  with  the  nation  as  a  unit,  and 
to  do  so  impartially  and  adequately  must  be  in  the  hands  of 
representatives  of  every  rank  and  condition.  In  the  insti- 
tutions of  Greece  and  Rome  we  find  traces  of  the  same 
thought  struggling  for  expression,  and  in  reality  it  under- 
lies the  entire  conflict  for  freedom;  but  we  shall  not  pause 
to  verify  this  assertion,  as  we  believe  the  end  we  have  in 
view  can  be  more  directly  attained  by  an  appeal  to  events  of 
a  different  order  and  nearer  to  our  own  times. 

Permit  us  to  recall  "  The  Statute  of  Laborers,"  enacted 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  by  which  wages  were  fixed 
and  vexatious  regulations  of  various  kinds  imposed.  By 
this  law  carpenters  were  to  receive  threepence  per  day,  free- 
masons fourpence  and  their  "  knaves  "  one  penny  half-penny, 
thatchers  threepence,  plasterers  the  same  and  their  knaves 
one-half  the  amount.  By  these  statutes  it  was  also  decreed 
that  "all  alliances  and  covines  of  carpenters  and  masons 
were  to  be  wholly  annulled, "thus  preventing  the  formation 
of  trades  unions  or  other  organizations  for  the  advantage 
of  working  people.  In  1363  several  acts  were  passed 
ordaining  that  servants  shall  receive  milk,  meat  and  cheese, 
once  a  day;  that  shepherds  shall  not  buy  cloth  exceeding  six- 
pence a  yard,  or  yeomen,  traders  and  artificers  one  shilling 
and  sixpence.  The  length  of  their  shoes  were  determined 
for  them,  and  burdens  of  the  most  onerous  description  were 
mercilessly  laid  on  them.  All  this  legislation,  as  you  doubt- 


38  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

less  perceive,  was  in  the  interest  of  the  landed  proprietors 
and  great  barons,  and  discriminated  unjustly  and  injuriously 
against  the  commons;  yet  those  who  sanctioned  it  were  con- 
vinced of  its  wisdom  and  importance,  and  imagined  that 
the  oppression  of  the  poor  and  the  sacrifice  of  their  happi- 
ness would  contribute  to  their  own  security  and  prosperity. 
They  were  rudely  roused  from  this  delusion  by  the  stir- 
ring events  of  1377-1381.  Maddened  by  these  cruel  exac- 
tions, and  by  the  imposition  of  unequal  taxes  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  foreign  wars,  and  incited  by  Ball,  the  "mad 
priest  of  Kent/'  as  Froissart  calls  him,  and  alarmed  by  the 
spread  of  the  plague,  known  as  the  "Black  Death,"  which 
only  exposed  them  to  additional  wrongs  at  the  hands  of 
their  tyrants,  the  people  under  Wat  Tyler  appealed  to  arms, 
marched  a  hundred  thousand  strong  on  London  and  there 
asserted  their  rights.  An  old  ballad  relates: 

And  then  they  inarch't  with  one  consent 
Through  London  with  a  rude  intent. 
And  to  fulfil  their  lewd  desire        * 
They  set  the  Savoy  all  on  fire. 
And  for  the  hate  that  they  did  bear 
Unto  the  Duke  of  Lancashire, 
Therefore  his  house  they  burned  quite 
Through  envy,  malice  and  despite. 

Green- in  his  history  of  The  English  People  reports  Ball 
as  saying  in  his  sermons:  "Things  will  never  go  well  in 
England  so  long  as  goods  be  not  in  common,  and  so  long  as 
there  be  gentlemen  and  villains."  Hume  also  writes:  "It 
was  pretended,  that  the  intentions  of  the  mutineers  had 
been  to  seize  the  King's  person,  to  carry  him  through 
England  at  their  head  ;  to  murder  all  the  nobility,  gentry, 
and  lawyers,  and  even  all  the  bishops  and  priests,  except 
the  mendicant  friars;  to  dispatch  afterwards  the  king  him- 
self and,  having  thus  reduced  all  to  a  level,  to  order  the 
kingdom  at  their  pleasure."  He  admits  that  in  the  delir- 


PEASANT   REVOLTS.  39 

him  of  success  some  such  projects  may  have  been  enter- 
tained, and  he  records  some  deeds  of  violence  in  justifica- 
tion of  this  suspicion,  but  he  shows  that  the  actual  de- 
mands of  the  insurgents  were  altogether  of  a  reasonable 
character.  These  demands  were  conceded  by  royal 
authority,  but  were  ultimately  rejected,  all  decrees  and 
charters  executed  in  their  favor  being  revoked  as  soon  as 
the  mob  dispersed.  To  the  superficial  reader  it  may  ap- 
pear that  this  movement,  and  the  subsequent  one  under 
Cade,  1450,  were  simply  disastrous  failures,  and  pernicious 
in  their  effects  on  the  popular  cause.  This  opinion,  how- 
ever, is  not  altogether  warranted.  It  is,  of  course,  true  that 
Tyler,  Straw,  Cade,  and  their  followers  did  not  succeed  as 
they  expected;  and  yet  they  accomplished  more  than  his- 
tory allows — they  taught  with  painful  distinctness  that 
primary  lesson  of  Political  Economy,  the  solidarity  of 
Society.  They  did  this  unconsciously,  and  their  mas- 
ters were  dull  students;  yet  to  all  after  ages,  and  to  us, 
they  plainly  reveal  the  danger  attending  the  unnatural 
policy  of  building  up  the  interests  of  one  portion  of  com- 
munity at  the  expense  of  the  other,  and  the  insecurity  of 
the  advantages  and  their  destructive  re-action  against 
themselves,  which  result  from  this  crafty  scheme  of  segre- 
gation. Had  the  king  and  barons  of  those  times  possessed 
discernment,  which  unfortunately!  they  did  not,  they  would 
have  perceived  that  every  enactment  which  tended  to  impov- 
erish the  people  imperiled  their  own  fortunes,  and  that  every 
attack  on  the  liberty,  the  industry,  independence,  and  enter- 
prize  of  the  masses  must  ultimately  recoil  with  terrible 
force  against  themselves. 

That,  however,  which  the  infatuation  of  selfishness  pre- 
vented them  from  seeing,  was  again  forced  on  the  attention 
of  the  world  by  the  sanguinary  revolt  of  German  peasants 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  lot  of  the  Rustauds  was  in- 
deed deplorable,  They  were  the  prey  of  priests  and  nobles, 


40  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFK. 

and  were  treated  by  them  as  aliens  and  savages.  Robbed, 
scourged,  imprisoned,  murdered,  at  the  pleasure  of  their 
superiors,  they  were  alike  strangers  to  joy  and  hope. 
Bankers,  like  the  Fuggers  of  Augsburg,  were  enormously 
wealthy,  and  some  of  the  great  nobles  were  exceedingly 
rich,  but  the  nation  as  such  was  poor.  The  more  money 
wrung  through  cruet  exactions  from  the  peasants  by  eccle- 
siastical and  laical  plunderers,  the  less  they  seemed  able  to 
retain  in  their  own  coffers.  The  entire  population  was 
practically  beggared  by  the  repacious  greed  of  the  few,  and 
only  a  few  of  the  few  were  profited  by  the  grasping  policy 
of  the  times.  It  is  related  of  the  Fuggers  that  when  they 
entertained  Charles  V.  at  their  palatial  residence,  they 
warmed  his  apartment  by  burning  sandal-wood  which 
they  kindled  with  royal  bonds  given  for  moneys  loaned  the 
emperor — a  senseless  and  vulgar  display  of  wealth  some- 
what similar  to  those  which  have  occurred  in  our  own  day. 
But  this  splendid  blaze  serves  to  bring  into  relief  the  dire 
darkness  and  distress  of  the  people,  and  the  sharp  contrast 
really  heightens  the  solemn  truth  that  national  decadence 
follows  the  monopoly  of  wealth.  This  truth,  however, 
was  to  receive  a  bloody  vindication  during  the  fateful  years 
of  1524-5,  and  it  was  again  to  be  tragically  illustrated  that 
the  law  of  solidarity  will  ever  find  calamitous  and  terrific 
means  of  retaliation  against  its  violators  and  despisers. 
The  bankers  lit  their  sandal-wood  fire  to  illuminate  their 
affluence;  but  the  outraged  peasants  started  a  conflagration 
of  a  different  kind  to  illuminate  their  indigence.  En- 
couraged by  the  battle-words  of  Luther,  and  exasperated 
by  their  sufferings,  the  peasants  rose  in  rebellion  against 
their  lords  in "Swabia,  in  the  Black  Forest,  in  Franconia, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Neckre,  in  Hesse,  Thuringia  and  Saxony. 
Some  among  them  painted  a  sun  on  a  white  banner,  and 
took  for  a  motto  the  words: 

"  Werfrey  mil  seyn, 
Der  folge  flienem  Son  nentchein, " 


THE    GERMAN    PEASANTS.  41 

They  were  mistaken.  In  one  sense  popular  movements 
lead  to  the  light,  but  not  when  they  set  out  to  burn  private 
property  and  to  give  the  treasures  of  ages  to  devouring 
flames.  This  was  the  blunder  of  the  peasants,  as  it  was  of 
the  Parisian  Communists  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon.  The 
only  sun  of  these  despairing  serfs  was  that  which  they  ignited 
in  their  wrath,  and  which  reddened  mountain  top  and  quiet 
vale.  Convents,  churches,  castles,  they  doomed  to  the  torch 
of  the  incendiary,  and  property  worth  millions  was  reduced 
to  ashes.  Hot  work  this  with  a  vengeance;  but  altogether 
too  terrific  and  scorifying  to  suit  our  hyperborean  ideas  of 
prudence  or  even  of  right.  One  wrong  does  not  justify 
another,  and  is  certainly  no  remedy  for  wrong.  It  only 
divides  the  already  divided  community,  and  further  alienates 
those  who  ought  to  be  united.  The  peasants  harassed  and 
slaughtered  the  nobles  and  destroyed  their  possessions,  as 
many  of  their  own  number  had  been  slaughtered  and  as 
many  of  their  own  little  homes  had  been  destroyed.  Retri- 
bution works  through  them,  but  not  reform  or  social  regen- 
eration. They  are  ultimately  overborne  and  subdued,  and 
taste  once  once  more  the  bitterness  of  oppression.  Never- 
theless, though  their  immediate  purposes  were  thwarted, 
they  had  revealed  to  Europe  that  its  safety  and  prosperity 
depended  on  the  well-being  of  the  many,  not  of  the  few, 
and  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  millions  to  the  excessive  greed 
of  the  hundreds,  being  totally  subversive  of  the  divine  law 
of  fraternity,  must  inevitably  be  attended  by  revolts,  reck- 
lessness and  bloodshed,  in  which  the  fortunes  of  the  favored 
ones,  and  probably  their  lives,  will  be  swallowed  up.  When, 
in  1535,  Charles  V.,  with  a  powerful  army  moved  on  the 
mighty  slave-holding  chief,  Barbarossa,  at  Tunis,  it  seemed 
very  doubtful  whether  he  could  reduce  him  to  submis- 
sion, and  likely  the  result  had  been  different  from  what 
it  was  but  for  the  white  slaves  in  the  town,  who,  at  great 
risk  to  themselves,  rose  in  arms  and  overthrew  the  tyrant. 


42  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL    LIFE. 

These  slaves  constituted  the  one  weak  and  vulnerable  point 
in  the  camp  of  Barbarossa.  He  did  not  appreciate  this 
fact,  and  he  fell.  So  the  peasants  of  Germany  were  an 
element  of  peril  to  their  oppressors,  ready  on  every  suitable 
occasion  to  break  through  restraints  and  avenge  themselves. 
Thus,  likewise,  the  suffering  multitudes  of  France  at  a  later 
period  were  a  stifled  threat  to  royalty  and  its  allies,  and  when 
an  emergency  occurred  and  the  throne  was  practically  bank- 
rupt they  swiftly  took  advantage  of  these  embarrassments, 
deluged  the  streets  of  Paris  in  blood,  and  brought  to  the 
block  the  men  and  women  who  had  neglected  them  and  had 
treated  them  as  "dumb  driven  cattle."  So  also  now  the 
pauper  population  and  the  criminal  classes  are  a  constant 
menace  to  the  money  kings,  whose  reign  is  stained  by  cruel 
exactions  and  gigantic  frauds,  and  the  opportunity  is  only 
needed  for  these  discontented  and  degraded  peoples  to  rise 
in  their  fury  and  execute  a  horrible  retaliation  on  those  who 
have  so  pitilessly  abused  their  confidence,  necessities  and 
helplessness.  Perhaps,  then,  when  dynamite  is  wrecking  the 
property,  and  hoarse,  drunken  crowds  are  yelling  for  their 
blood,  and  when  lurid  flames,  belching  cannon,  murderous 
musketry  and  devilish  orgies  announce  the  triumph  of  death 
and  destruction,  these  glittering,  greedy,  grasping,  grinding 
gentry  of  ours,  will  wake  from  their  present  pleasing  slum- 
bers and  discover  that  human  solidarity  is  something  more 
than  a  philosophical  abstraction,  and  is  indeed  nothing 
less  than  a  tremendous  reality  charged  with  sulphurous 
smoke  and  scorching  lava,  and  dooms-day  lightnings  des- 
tined to  stifle,  consume  and  blast  those  who  have  treated  it 
with  supercilious  scorn  and  contempt.  Better  open  our 
eyes  to  the  truth,  my  friends,  before  the  arrival  of  an  hour 
so  fateful;  and  better  learn  from  history  than  wait  to 
be  taught  by  bitter  experience.  As  Carlyle  significantly 
writes:  "A  Cromwell  Rebellion,  a  French  Revolution 


EXALTING  THE   STATE.  43 

striking  on  the  horologe  of  time  to  tell  all  mortals  what 
o'clock  it  is,  are  too  expensive  if  we  could  help  it." 

The  principle  we  have  here  discussed  is  evidently  fun- 
damental to  any  sufficient  and  satisfactory  solution  of  the 
problems  which  perplex  Society.  Its  recognition  is  as 
necessary  to  the  formation  of  anything  like  a  just  Social 
Science  as  gravitation  is  to  a  correct  scheme  of  the  phys- 
ical universe.  We  cannot,  without  anticipating  what  may 
be  said  with  greater  force  in  subsequent  papers,  indicate  at 
this  point  all  of  its  practical  bearings,  or  determine  in 
advance  its  specific  relation  to  those  grave  questions  which 
are  exciting  the  attention  of  thoughtful  people  in  every 
community.  All  in  good  time.  But  while  some  of  the 
applications  of  the  law  may  be  left  to  disclose  themselves 
hereafter,  there  are  others,  notably  two,  which  may  be 
considered  and  ought  to  be  in  this  connection. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  necessity  for  equal  and  impar- 
tial legislation  whenever  government  feels  called  on  to  reg- 
ulate the  commercial  or  industrial  affairs  of  the  people. 
Let  it  be  distinctly  understood,  we  are  not  clamoring  for 
such  regulation,  and  firmly  believe,  as  any  one  can  see  who 
reflects  on  what  we  have  already  written,  that  the  less  we 
have  of  it  the  better  for  all  parties  concerned.  Society 
has  never  gained  much  from  the  State.  It  may  do  better 
in  the  future,  but  its  past  dealings  have  not  been  of  a  char- 
acter to  inspire  confidence.  Those  who  rely  on  it  are 
those  who,  as  Professor  Sumner  says,  regard  it  "as  an 
entity  having  conscience,  power  and  will  sublimated  above 
human  limitations,  and  as  constituting  a  tutelary  genius 
over  us  all."  But  history,  as  well  as  contemporaneous 
events,  proves  that  this  is  an  illusion.  The  State,  as  a 
rule,  is  very  human,  has  no  conscience  worth  speaking  of, 
and  commits  as  many  blunders,  and  in  general  is  as  stupid 
as  the  mass  of  unofficial  mankind.  This  is  decidedly  the 
American  view.  In  this  country  our  leading  political 


44  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIVE. 

economists  adopt  the  great  principle  of  laissez  faire 
advanced  by  Adam  Smith,  as  being  more  in  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  our  Constitution,  which  rests  on  the  auton- 
omy and  sacreduess  of  the  individual  and  not  on  the 
Divine  authority  and  sacredness  of  government,  than  any 
absolutist  and  despotic  theory  whatever,  however  it  may 
be  disguised  by  fine  phrases  regarding  liberty,  fraternity 
and  equality.  According  to  the  American  doctrine  njum 
iff ffleat^tj^aiLaDy  agent  be^emj^loys,  and  governments  are 
simply  instruments  made  by  the  people  for  the  people, 
and  to  serve  the  people  in  those  things  which  common 
consent  has  delegated  to  them;  and  it  holds  further  that 
the  citizen  must  take  care  of  himself  in  business  and  in 
property  relations,  that  he  must  depend  on  his  own  energy 
and  skill,  and  not  on  material  aid  voted  by  legislatures; 
that  no  grants  of  money  are  to  be  made  as  benefactions, 
except,  perhaps,  in  the  case  of  extensive  disasters,  and  that 
ordinary  calamities  which  overtake  labor,  commerce, 
agriculture  and  manufactures  must  be  met  and  repaired 
by  the  parties  directly  concerned.  Lieber  (Civil  Liberty) 
confirms  this  interpretation.  He  contrasts  Gallican  lib- 
erty with  that  of  America,  and  shows  that  the  former  is 
essentially  "a  popular  absolutism,"  a  supreme  centralism, 
an  arbitrary  parent  born  of  his  own  children,  sometimes 
so  harsh  as  to  warrant  the  paradox  of  Proudhon — "no  one 
is  less  democratic  than  the  people " — ;  while  the  latter 
he  clearly  shows  is,  in  theory  at  least,  the  antipodes  of  every- 
thing that  enters  into  the  French  conception.  In  France 
the  people  feel  that  the  authorities  ought  to  provide  for 
them  in  emergencies;  and  consequently  they  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  appeal  to  them  for  bread  when  it  is  needed,  and  to 
depose  them  summarily  when  they  do  not  supply  it. 
They  make  out  of  their  representatives  in  office  a  kind  of 
providence,  and  look  to  them  for  such  interpositions  as 
shall  save  them  from  disaster.  With  us  it  is  different,  the 


INDIVIDUALISM   AND   PATERNALISM.  45 

genius  of  our  institutions  is  such  that  it  promotes  personal 
independence,  inspires  every  man  under  God  to  be  his 
own  special  providence,  and  leads  the  citizens  in  general 
to  conclude  that  the  State  needs  them  far  more  than  they 
need  the  State.  But  while  this  is  undoubtedly  the  real 
American  doctrine,  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  it  has  never 
been  departed  from  in  practical  politics,  or  that  it  may 
not  be  necessary  at  times  to  temper  and  restrain  individ- 
ualism by  a  wise  and  moderate  paternalism.  In  the  judg- 
ment of  many,  our  representatives  have  on  various  occa- 
sions pursued  the  fatherly  policy,  as  for  instance  in  devis- 
ing and  maintaining  a  protective  tariff,  and  in  interfering 
in  Wall  street  to  avert  from  stock-gamblers  the  result  of 
their  speculative  mania.  The  propriety  of  these  special 
interpositions  we  shall  not  discuss,  though  we  must  say 
that  they  evince  too  much  of  the  spirit  of  favoritism  to 
command  our  hearty  approval.  There  are  others,  how- 
ever, such  as  the  common  school  system,  to  which  this 
objection  does  not  apply.  But  apart  from  the  wisdom  or 
unwisdom  of  these  particular  cases,  they  illustrate  the 
fact,  that  only  comparative  fidelity  to  the  laissez  faire  rule 
has  been  feasible  in  American  legislation.  Perhaps  this  is 
all  that  should  be  looked  for,  and  possibly  it  is  all  that 
should  be  desired.  Our  own  view  is,  that  individualism 
is  fundamental  to  the  idea  of  liberty,  and  that  paternalism 
in  government  should  always  be  subordinated  to  its  con- 
servation, and  should  be  invoked  mainly  to  correct  its 
abuses  and  obstruct  its  selfishness.  We  believe  that  pater- 
nalism should  be  .kept  at  the  minimum,  not  prohibited 
altogether.  If  it  can  be  resorted  to  occasionally  with  ben- 
efit to  all,  and  without  impairing  the  sense  of  inde- 
pendence and  manhood  in  any,  it  may  be  allowed  to  pass 
unchallenged.  But,  as  we  have  already  intimated,  it  is 
ever  to  be  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  should  only  be 
applied  as  a  denier  ressort.  Once  adopted  as  the  supreme 


46  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

law  of  government  private  interests  and  personal  freedom 
would  speedily  be  things  of  the  past.  Consequently,,  too 
great  care  cannot  be  taken  in  calling  into  play  an  instru- 
ment of  such  doubtful  expediency.  Far  better  discourage 
Congress  from  direct  interference  in  the  domain  of  trade; 
but  if  in  some  circumstances  it  is  imperative,  as  we  admit 
it  may  be,  let  us  learn  from  the  reality  of  human  solidarity 
that  it  must  be  impartial  if  it  is  to  be  beneficial.  Enact- 
ments that  discriminate  in  favor  of  one  class,  will  in  the 
long  run  prove  prejudicial  to  all.  In  Europe  this  simple 
truth  has  been  frequently  ignored,  or  what  is  worse,  has 
been  scorned  and  repudiated.  Statutes  exist  there,  and 
are  yet  in  force,  which  bear  heavily  and  cruelly  on  certain 
portions  of  the  population,  and  until  they  are  annulled 
discontent  and  secret  treason  will  foment  and  threaten. 

Nor  has  America  entirely  escaped  from  similar  perni- 
cious legislation.  Particularly,  though  not  exclusively, 
does  it  appear  in  relation  to  her  railroad  interests,  and  a 
glance  at  it  in  that  connection  will  show  how  indulgent  a 
mother  she  is  at  times  to  some  of  her  children,  and  how 
hard  her  favoritism  bears  on  others  of  them.  It  is  not 
generally  understood  how  vast  have  been  the  donations  of 
public  lands  to  companies.  The  figures  are  simply  bewil- 
dering. The  amount  actually  granted  by  Congress  appears 
to  be  about  215,000,000  acres.  "  This  does  not  include  the 
railroad  land  grants  from  the  State  of  Texas,  amounting  to 
38,457,600  acres,  as  given  by  the  Chicago  Tribune,  which 
must  be  taken  into  account  to  make  a  complete  showing, 
making  a  grand  aggregate,  in  round  numbers,  of  255,000,000 
acres. "  Here  we  have  a  territory  computed  to  be  two-thirds 
greater  than  the  total  area  of  Great  Britain,  and  more  exten- 
sive by  fifty  millions  of  acres  than  the  thirteen  original  states 
of  our  Union,  and  just  about  equal  in  size  to  the  empire  of 
Austro-Hungary  and  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  with  Switzer- 
land and  the  Netherlands  added.  Phew  1  it  takes  one's  breath 


THE   LAND   GRAB.  47 

away!  To  think  of  such  vast  tracts  of  hind,  such  princi- 
palities and  empires  being  voted  away  by  a  handful  of  men 
in  Washington,  such  wholesale  squandering  of  the  patri- 
mony of  unborn  generations;  why  it  is  enough  to  excite 
popular  indignation  to  the  boiling-point  of  insurrection, 
and  to  awaken  regrets  that  Congress,  as  John  Randolph 
would  have  said,  being  a  corporation,  "has  no  soul  to  damn 
and  no  body  to  kick."  The  people  have  been  despoiled. 
They  have  been  robbed  of  what  represents  a  cash  value  of 
$600,000,000,  and  that,  too,  for  the  special  benefit  of  some 
five  companies,  which  in  their  turn  are  controlled  by  not 
more  than  twenty-five  men.  That  is,  all  this  wealth  has 
been  deliberately  taken  by  Congress  out  of  the  pockets  of 
the  masses  and  handed  over  to  these  few  gentlemen  to  do 
with  as  they  please.  Wars  have  been  waged  in  Europe  for 
the  possession  of  far  less  territory  than  is  involved  in  these 
railroad  grants;  and  today  France  would  shed  the  blood  of 
her  noblest  men  in  battle  if  she  saw  the  least  chance  of  re- 
gaining Alsace  or  Loraine  from  the  iron  talons  of  Germany. 
Yet  that  entire  district  or  province  is  a  trifle,  a  mere  speck 
of  a  garden,  in  comparison  with  the  bewildering  number  of 
acres  donated  by  our  law-makers,  who  in  this  connection 
may  be  regarded  as  "law-breakers"  as  well.  But  though 
suffering  from  this  great  outrage  the  people  have  remained 
passive  and  peaceful.  They  are  to  be  commended.  It 
might,  however,  have  been  otherwise  if  the  nation  had  not 
been  engaged  in  war  for  its  existence  when  the  first  grant 
of  land  was  made  to  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  corpora- 
tions, July  1,  1802;  and  it  might  be  otherwise  now  were  not 
our  citizens  convinced  that  reason  and  justice  are  more  potent 
than  violence  in  settling  such  disputes  as  these.  But  let  it 
not  be  supposed  that  they  approve  the  transactions  by  which 
they  and  their  children  have  been  despoiled  because  they  are 
thus  pacific.  Far  from  it.  They  condemn  them,  and  the 
more  they  know  of  them  the  more  bitter  will  be  their  con- 


48  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

demnation.  They  remember  that  Congress  more  than 
twenty  years  ago  "perfected  a  land  system  by  which  the 
public  domain  was  set  apart  for  the  benefit  of  the  people." 
This  legislation  rendered  it  possible  for  every  man  and 
woman  who  desired  a  farm  to  procure  one.  These  home- 
stead laws  limited  the  sales  of  public  lands  to  lots  of  160 
acres  each,  and  the  price  to  be  paid  was  merely  nominal. 
Under  this  scheme  small  holdings  would  have  multiplied, 
and  though  railroads  might  not  have  been  built  very 
rapidly,  they  would  ultimately  have  been  built,  and  in 
the  meanwhile  the  nation  would  have  been  saved  from  a 
vast  amount  of  distress  which  has  resulted  largely  from 
the  feverish  and  hasty  attempts  to  develop  the  country. 

The  arraignment  is,  that  Congress  had  no  right  to  vote 
away  the  property  of  the  people,  and  that  in  doing  so  it  has 
not  only  practically  ignored  its  own  homestead  laws,  but 
has  entailed  -many  evils  on  this  generation.  It  is  argued  that 
these  vast  grants  impair  the  ability  of  the  government  to 
keep  faith  with  the  citizen;  that  they  have  encouraged  mon- 
opolies, which  again  have  tended  to  foster  tenant  farming, 
and  have  risked  the  future  of  the  Union  by  playing  into 
the  hands  of  a  few  soulless  speculators.  To  these  represent- 
ations doubtless  the  answer  will  be  made,  that  the  people 
have  an  equivalent — the  railroads — and  that  they  are  open- 
ing the  way  to  civilization  and  prosperity.  But  against  this 
view  of  the  case  it  is  urged,  that  the  people  have  received 
no  fair  and  sufficient  compensation.  Their  lands  have 
paid  for  the  building  of  the  roads,  and  the  corporations 
have  pocketed  the  profits,  profits  not  merely  in  the  earn- 
ings of  the  roads,  but  in  the  enhanced  value  of  the  lands, 
these  lands  being  now  sold  at  prices  greatly  in  advance  of 
government  estimate.  Indeed  so  enormous  have  been  the 
profits,  that  it  is  questionable  whether  any  private  capital 
has  been  really  lost  in  these  enterprises.  Of  course  there 
have  been  some  queer  dealings  in  bonds,  watering  of  stock, 


KA1LROAD   BUILDING.  49 

and  similiar  scheming  by  which  many  have  been  finan- 
cially ruined;  but  taking  the  actual  cost  and  comparing 
with  the  immense  gratuities  and  the  appreciation  in  value, 
no  one  has  been  out  of  purse  except  the  poor  legally  plun- 
dered people.  Moreover,  it  is  to  be  added,  that  large 
portions  of  these  grants  have  been  exempt  from  taxation; 
and  that  they  have  directly  encouraged  the  growth  of 
those  huge  farms  which  have  damaged  the  character  of 
agricultural  industry  in  the  Western  States.  The  process 
and  the  sequence  are  not  hard  to  describe.  Railroad  mag- 
nates themselves,  or  by  syndicates,  dispose  of  vast  tracts  of 
land,  which,  by  the  way,  government  could  not  sell  in  such 
quantities  to  single  owners  without  special  legislation,  and 
we  have  farms  of  65,000  acres,  100,000  and  even  500, 
000  acres.  Such  monster  estates  mean  ruin  to  those  who 
hold  smaller  ones.  The  proprietors  of  the  mammoth  farms 
can  command  abundant  capital;  they  obtain  special  rates 
for  transportation,  and  procure  machinery  and  implements 
at  less  cost  than  the  small  farmer  pays,  and  consequently 
competition  with  them  is  impossible.  In  the  struggle  for 
existence  the  weaker  go  under,  and  their  land  is  continually 
being  sacrificed  to  meet  liabilities,  and  already  in  the  dis- 
tricts referred  to,  it  is  being  concentrated  in  a  few  hands. 
If  to  this  it  is  said  the  roads  running  across  the  continent 
from  the  lakes  have  been  of  incalculable  benefit,  we  reply 
that  there  are  reasons  for  believing  that  their  value  has 
been  overestimated.  They  have  certainly  not  diminished 
poverty;  they  have  not  diverted  the  overflowing  population 
from  cities;  they  have  not  aided  the  unemployed  to  per- 
manent occupations,  and  they  have  not  contributed  in  any 
remarkable  degree  to  the  general  prosperity.  It  would  be 
unjust  to  lay  at  their  door  the  entire  blame  for  the  busi- 
ness depression  of  the  past  few  years;  but  unquestionably 
they  have  had  much  to  do  with  its  beginning  and  con- 
tinuance. Not,  however,  because  they  were  built,  but 
4 


50  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

because  of  the  means  employed  to  construct  them.  They 
owe  their  existence  measurably  to  corruption,  bribery, 
gambling,  and  speculation,  and  they  have  stimulated  these 
curses  everywhere,  and  as  a  result  we  have  had  inflation 
and  subsequent  commercial  prostration.  The  high-pres- 
sure speed  has  ended  where  it  only  could  end — in  collapse. 
Possibly  the  government  cannot  now  retrace  its  steps,  and 
cannot  cancel  the  iniquitous  grants  which  have  been  made 
to  railroad  corporations.  There  may  be  no  honorable  way 
of  .annulling  these,  but  at  least  we  may  learn  from  their 
pernicious  effects  to  avoid  such  legislation  in  the  future. 
Wherever  companies  have  not  complied  with  their  prom- 
ises their  lands  should  be  regarded  as  forfeited,  as  they 
really  are;  and  our  representatives  should  be  given  dis- 
tinctly to  understand  that  we  will  submit  to  no  additional 
robberies;  nay,  more  than  this,  that  we  will  neither  coun- 
tenance nor  tolerate  any  more  laws  that  discriminate 
against  rich  or  poor,  black  or  white,  or  that  in  any  way 
place  one  portion  of  the  population  in  the  greedy 
grasp,  and  within  the  rapacious  power  of  the  other.  In 
other  words,  we  ought  not  to  allow  the  criminal  blunders 
of  the  past  to  be  repeated;  and  gathering  from  the  principle 
of  solidarity  that  no  interest  can  be  safely  built  up  at  the 
expense  of  another,  we  ought  to  insist,  if  legislation  is  indis- 
pensable for  trade  or  labor,  that  it  be  equal,  fair  and 
impartial. 

A  final  application  of  our  subject  may  be  made  to 
that  excessive  "individualism"  ^which  is  so  prevalent 
in  our  times.  We  set  forth  in  the  earlier  portions  of  this 
dissertation  the  unlovely  and  selfish  character  it  had 
assumed  of  late;  and  our  entire  argument  has  pretty  clearly 
indicated  its  baleful  effects.  But  let  us  remember  we 
cannot  now  abolish  "  individualism."  No  act  of  Congress, 
no  authoritative  decree,  and  no  system  of  political  economy 
can  suppress  or  annul  it.  Legislation  and  philosophy  can 


PEBSONAL   RESPONSIBILITY  61 

never  prevail  against  it,  nor  would  it  be  for  the  best  interests 
of  Society  for  them  to  succeed  in  effacing  it  from  humanity. 
Its  destruction  would  be  a  blunder;  its  legitimate  and  be- 
nevolent exercise  would  prove  a  blessing.  Kow  the  laAv  of 
solidarity  emphatically  declares  its  responsibility,  and  reveals 
the  course  it  must  pursue  if  it  is  to  serve  and  promote  the 
best  interests  of  community.  This  law  does  not  diminish  the 
importance  of  the  individual,  but  rather  exalts  while  it 
corrects  and  directs.  It  does  not  deny  or  depreciate  the 
power  of  the  unit  on  the  mass;  but  admitting  its 
reality,  would  have  the  mass  molded  by  the  unit  for  good. 
Indeed  it  shows  distinctly  and  sharply  that  the  unit  cannot 
but  act  on  the  multitude,  and  as  a  consequence  the  welfare 
of  the  multitude  depends  on  the  conduct  of  the  unit.  If 
then  the  separate  members  of  Society  would  only  cease 
clamoring  as  much  as  they  do  about  their  rights  and 
would  address  themselves  heartily  to  their  duties,  and' 
if  they  would  cultivate  a  more  generous,  kindly,  paternal, 
and  enlightened  public  spirit  many  of  the  evils  which  now 
afflict  us  would  be  remedied. 

It  was  complained  of  the  French  revolutionists  that 
they  desired  to  be  free  but  knew  not  hovy  to  be  just ;  that 
is,  they  stooU  for  their  own  and  cared  not  for  others.  Had 
they  reversed  this  policy,  or  had  they  happily  blended  per- 
sonal freedom  with  social  justice,  they  would  have  been 
spared  many  inflictions,  not  the  least  of  which  has  been 
their  Napoleons  on  the  one  hand  and  their  Eocheforts  on 
the  other.  "  Why  don't  our  great  men  move  and  save  the 
people?"  was  asked  by  an  orator  in  the  Corps  Legislatifat 
Paris:  "  Because,"  replied  a  solemn  voice,  "they  are  all 
cast  in  bronze,"  referring  to  the  belief  that  they  had  ceased 
to  exist,  except  in  effigy.  Significant  answer,  even  more 
significant  than  the  speaker  thought.  The  great  men  of 
France,  of  England,  or  of  America  are  not  all  dead. 
These  nations  have  mighty  statesmen,  financiers,  jurists, 


52  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

inventors,  and  strong  leaders  in  every  .department  of 
thought  and  activity,  but  they  are  cast  in  bronze;  nay, 
worse  than  that,  a  harder  and  more  debasing  metal  flows 
in  their  viens — gold.  They  are  conformed  to  its  genius, 
and  embody  the  mean  passions  it  symbolizes.  Were  it 
otherwise,  were  they  men  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  were  they 
to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  famous  sentiment  expressed 
by  Terence:  "Homo  sum,  et  humani  a  me  nil  alienum 
puto."  Society  would  speedily  be  rescued  from  the  foes 
which  now  prey  upon  it.  The  demand  of  the  hour  is  that 
everyone  should  be  made  to  feel  his  personal  responsibility 
for  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  which  prevail,  and  should  be 
compelled  to  recognize  the  ability  he  possesses,  whether 
great  or  small,  for  their  correction  and  abolition.  Surely 
it  is  a  much  nobler  thing,  a  diviner  thing,  and  one  that 
must  in  the  long  run  bring  incomputable  compensation,  to 
work  for  the  well-being  of  the  race  than  to  labor  perpetu- 
ally for  the  advancement  of  self.  Schiller  represents 
Fiesco,  in  his  immortal  play  of  tnat  name,  as  debating  in 
his  own  mind  what  course  to  pursue  toward  the  people  of 
Genoa,  and  his  words  are  worthy  our  consideration.  The 
young  conspirator  argues  in  this  language: 

"To  obey!  or  to  command!  To  be  or  not  to  be! — The  space  be- 
tween is  as  wide  as  from  the  lowest  depths  of  hell  to  the  throne  of  the 
Almighty.  From  that  awful  height  to  look  down  securely  upon  the 
impetuous  whirlpool  of  mankind,  where  blind  fortune  holds  capri- 
cious sway!  To  tame  the  stubborn  passions  of  the  people,  and  curb 
them  with  a  playful  rein,  as  the  skillful  horseman  guides  the  fiery 
steed ! — With  a  breath — one  single  breath — to  quell  the  rising  pride  of 
vassals,  whilst  the  Prince  with  the  motion  of  his  scepter,  can  embody 
even  his  wildest  dream  of  fancy! — Ah!  What  thoughts  are  these 
which  transport  the  astounded  mind  beyond  its  boundaries!  Prince! — 
to  be  one  moment  prince,  comprises  the  essence  of  a  whole  existence. 
'Tis  not  the  mere  stage  of  life — but  the  part  we  play  on  it  that  gives 
the  value!"  *****  O  artifice  of  sin,  that  masks  each  devil 
with  an  angel's  face!  Fatal  ambition!  Everlasting  tempter!  Won  by 
thy  charms,  angels  abandoned  heaven,  and  death  sprung  from  thy 


BENEFICENT    EGOISM.  53 

embraces.  Thy  syren  voice  drew  angels  from  their  celestial  man- 
sions. Man  thou  ensnarest  with  beauty,  riches,  power.  To  gain  a 
diadem  is  great — to  reject  it  is  divine !  Perish  the  tyrant!  Let  Genoa 
be  free — and  I  will  be  its  happiest  citizen." 

And  happy  would  Fiesco  have  been  had  he  yielded  to 
this  just  indignation,  and  rejecting  ducal  honors,  had  de- 
voted himself  to  the  real  advancement  of  the  Common- 
wealth. Then  indeed  would  he  have  played  a  noble  part 
which  would  have  imparted  a  priceless  value  to  his  life.  But, 
alas!  he  chose  the  more  selfish  course,  and  died  as  ignobly 
as  he  had  lived.  Let  his  example  be  avoided  ;  and  let  us 
all  learn  from  the  unity  of  humanity,  the  grandeur  of  a 
career  in  sympathy  with  its  needs.  Even  let  us  cultivate 
the  feeling  that  our  service  in  its  behalf  cannot  be  dis- 
pensed with,  and  that  there  is  none  of  us  so  lowly  as  to  be 
useless  in  conserving  its  liberties  and  in  promoting  its  pros- 
perity. This  is  an  "egoism*'  Society  can  approve,  and  it 
is  full  of  hope  and  promise.  Be  as  egoistic  as  you  please 
in  this  respect.  You  are  of  importance ;  you  can  make 
yourselves  a  blessing ;  you  can  make  the  world  better  for 
your  being  in  it ;  and  you  can  leave  behind  you  guiding 
"foot-prints  in  the  sands  of  time/' 

This  then  is  the  practical  and  direct  bearing  of  the 
theme  we  have  considered  in  this  paper.  Do  you  sneer- 
ingly  reply,  "this  is  only  a  common-place,  a  trite  moral 
which  no  one  will  gainsay "  ?  And  are  you  disposed  to 
add,  "there  is  nothing  very  practical  in  this;  what  we 
specially  need  is  some  comprehensive  law  which  shall  so 
regulate  social  relations  that  injustice  and  suffering  will 
be  next  to  impossible"  ?  Many  people  talk  in  this  foolish 
way,  and  thus  tend  to  blind  themselves  and  others  to  their 
actual  responsibility.  How  far  such  a  law  is  possible  we 
shall  not  be  slow  to  point  out  at  the  proper  time;  but  in 
the  meanwhile  it  should  be  remembered  that  no  law  can  be 
effective  apart  from  public  opinion  and  prevailing  seuti- 


54  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

meut.  We  have  on  the  statute  books  many  wholesome 
provisions  which  are  never  put  in  force,  because  the  con- 
science of  the  nation  has  grown  away  from  them.  They 
are  a  dead-letter  and  a  by-word.  Others  may  be  added, 
and  every  wrong  be  proscribed  and  every  right  be  defended, 
and  yet  Society  remain  just  as  it  is;  and  it  will  so  remain 
unless  the  majority  of  citizens  are  in  harmony  with  their 
aims  and  spirit.  If  this  is  a  fact,  and  we  shall  not  insult 
your  intelligence  by  calling  it  in  question,  it  is  important 
and  highly  practical  to  educate  the  popular  mind  and  heart 
to  an  adequate  realization  of  individual  influence  and 
power.  Without  this  no  new  and  even  meritorious  system 
of  Society  will  be  worth  the  paper  it  is  written  on;  and 
with  this,  systems  incomparably  poorer  than  any  now 
extant  will  be  harmless  and  indifferent.  Therefore  with 
all  due  respect  to  those  who  toss  their  heads  superciliously 
at  the  triteness  of  the  remedy  suggested  by  a  candid  view 
of  solidarity,  we  still  insist  on  its  value  and  practicality. 
No  one  can  deny  that  this  '''commonplace"  is  largely 
ignored,  and  that  everything  done  toward  its  restoration, 
everything  that  tends  to  render  it  more  sharp  and  vivid, 
must  be  advantageous  to  the  race;  and  such  being  the  case 
every  effort  to  guide  individualism  aright  must  be  more 
eminently  utilitarian  than  even  specific  statutes  and 
revised  governments.  Here,  then,  we  rest  our  defense  of 
the  worth  of  this  second  lesson  derived  from  the  subject 
discussed,  and  in  harmony  with  it  we  call  on  all  who 
read  to  go  forth  unaided,  and  if  needs  be  alone,  to  the 
conflict  with  social  evils  of  every  description. 

It  is  reported  of  King  Henry  that,  having  sought  refuge 
from  a  furious  storm  in  a  castle,  Earl  Simon  appmiched  him 
and  entreated  him  not  to  fear.  To  which  the  royal  craven 
was  honest  enough  to  answer,  "  I  fear  thunder  and  lightning 
not  a  little,  Lord  Simon,  but  I  fear  you  more."  And  it  is 
equally  true  that  vice,  corruption  and  darkness  which  make 


TIIM    BATTLE-CRY.  55 

a  hell  on  earth,  tremble  before  an  earnest,  self-sacrificing 
man.  The  crash  of  elemental  forces  are  nothing  when 
compared  with  him;  and  if  we  can  muster  an  army  of  such 
men  we  shall  soon  find  that  all  the  powers  of  Night  and 
Despair  'can  not  resist  its  onslaught.  Therefore,  we  sum- 
mon you,  dear  reader,  to  your  post;  yea,  the  wails  of  suffer- 
ing millions,  more  pathetic  and  more  potent  than  anything 
mortal  pen  can  write,  call  you  to  battle  and  to  victory.  In 
the  words  of  Adelaide  Proctor — 

Rise  for  the  day  is  passing 
Aiicl  yon  lie  dreaming  on; 
The«others  have  buckled  their  armor 
And  forth  to  the  fight  are  gone. 
A  place  in  the  ranks  awaits  you, 
Each  man  has  some  part  to  play — 
The  Past  and  the  Future  are  looking 
In  the  face  of  the  stern  Today. 


11. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  SOCIETY. 

"I  recognize,  contemplate  and  approve 
The  general  compact  of  Society. 

*****        Touch 
The  work  I  may  and  must,  but — reverent 
In  every  fall  o'  the  finger-tip,  no  doubt. 
*    *    I  find  advance  i'  the  main  and  notably 
The  Present  an  improvement  on  the  Past. 
And  promise  for  the  Future,  which  shall  prove 
Only  the  Present  with  its  rough  made  smooth. 
##**#** 

We  have  toiled  so  long  to  gain  what  gain  I  find 

I'  the  Present,  let  us  keep  it!    We  shall  toil 

So  long  before  we  gain,  if  gain  God  grant, 

A  future  with  one  touch  of  difference 

I'  the  heart  of  things,  and  not  their  outside  face, 

Let  us  not  risk  the  whiff  of  my  cigar 

For  Fourier,  Cointe  and  all  that  ends  in  smoke." 

— Robert  Browning. 

THE  dream  of  Hesoid,  re-sung  by  Ovid,  Virgil,  Horace 
and  Juvenal,  that  man  enjoyed  at  first  the  blessings  of 
a  golden  age,  and  has  descended  through  various  changes 
to  an  iron  era,  is  not  sustained  by  the  dispassionate  voice  of 
history.  Whatever  may  be  true  regarding  Eden,  this  much 
seems  evident,  that  after  the  fall  of  Adam  the  condition  of 
the  race  was  exceedingly  low,  and  primitive  Society  a  very 
rude,  simple  and  barbarous  affair.  From  this  humble 
beginning  there  appears  to  have  been  a  departure  up- 
ward. The  movement  of  humanity,  though  varied  by 
reactions  and  temporary  retrogressions,  has  been,  in  the 
main,  forward  and  not  backward.  It  is  not  our  pur- 


THEORIES   OF    PROGRESS.  57 

pose  to  trace  the  successive  steps  of  this  progress ;  but  it 
may  convince  you  of  its  reality  to  remind  you  that  it 
lias  been  sufficiently  clear  and  commanding  to  rouse  the 
attention  of  various  schools  of  thought,  and  has  led  to  pro- 
found inquiries  regarding  the  principles  by  which  it  has 
been  governed.  Vico,  of  Naples,  1725,  studied  this  subject 
earnestly,  and  found  an  answer  to  the  questions  he  pro- 
pounded in  the  doctrines  of  providence,  immortality  and 
self-sovereignty,  supplemented  by  the  institutions  of  religion 
and  marriage.  Leibnitz,  Lessing,  Descartes  and  Pascal, 
carefully  and  thoroughly  pursued  the  same  investigation, 
and  with  almost  identical  results.  Alike  they  regarded  the 
race,  allied  as  it  is  by  enduring  ties,  and  compacted  and 
welded  by  social  instincts  and  social  organizations  as  one 
man — "'as  a  man  who  lives  always  and  who  learns  contin- 
ually," and  who  is  unceasingly  impelled  by  moral  forces 
within  and  without  toward  perfectibility.  In  our  day  the 
problem  has  been  anew  discussed  by  Herbert  Spencer,  who, 
following  Hobbes,  has  traced  a  resemblance  between  vital 
and  social  organisms,  and  has  undertaken  to  build  thereon 
an  elaborate  theory.  Like  a  living  body,  he  claims  that 
Society  increases  in  structure  as  it  increases  in  size.  He 
argues  that  it  proceeds  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  hetei'T 
ogeneous,  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  and  that 
it  is  under  the  control  of  a  grim  necessity  which  logi- 
cally supersedes  the  action  of  intelligent  volition.  All 
of  these  theories  are  exceedingly  interesting,  though  in 
some  respects  misleading.  While  they  abundantly  prove 
that  the  world  has  neither  stagnated  nor  retrograded  they  do 
not  always  avoid  generalizations  and  conclusions  which  are 
hasty,  fanciful  and  confusing.  They  have,  therefore,  to  be 
read  with  the  greatest  care,  and  their  inferences  to  be  re- 
ceived with  the  greatest  caution.  This,  in  our  opinion,  is 
particularly  true  of  some  positions  maintained  by  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer,  as  Mr.  Henry  George  has  very  clearly  shown, 


58  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

The  writer  of  Progress  and  Poverty  has  unsparingly  ex- 
posed the  weak  points  in  the  doctrine  of  our  "  Philosopher 
of  Evolution,"  and  has  laid  particular  stress  on  its  fatalistic 
character,  "inasmuch  as  it  holds  that  no  change  can  avail 
save  the  slow  changes  in  men's  nature  :" 

Philosophers  may  teach  that  this  does  not  lessen  the  duty  of  en- 
deavoring to  reform  abuses,  just  as  the  theologians  who  taught  predes- 
tinariauism  insisted  on  the  duty  of  all  to  struggle  for  salvation;  but, 
as  generally  apprehended,  the  result  is  fatalism — do  what  we  may.  the 
mills  of  the  gods  grind  on  regardless  either  of  our  aid  or  our  hin- 
derauce. 

It  stands  to  reason  could  the  race  be  persuaded  that 
progress  is  the  result  of  uncontrollable  causes,  operating 
inevitably,  there  would  be  no  incentive  to  antagonize  with 
crushing  evils,  and  no  heart  to  assail  and  dispute  the  tri- 
umphal processioning  of  wrong.  Such  a  conviction  would 
mean  paralysis  and  hopeless  imbecility;  and  the  fervid 
advocates  of  the  development  hypothesis  ought  to  consider 
whether  its  evident  disastrous  outcome  in  the  domain  of 
practical  life  does  not  materially  diminish,  if  not  entirely 
destroy  its  general  credibility  and  trustworthiness.  To  me 
it  is  as  the  witch  Sycorax,  mother  of  the  cruel  Caliban, 
who  enclosed  Ariel  in  the  pine-rift  for  many  years,  breeding 
monsters  of  despair,  fettering  and  enslaving  energy  and 
enterprise,  and  entailing  on  mankind  nameless  and  meas- 
urelesss  sufferings.  Only  the  wand  of  Prospero,  symbol  of 
a  diviner  ideal,  can  ever  break  the  spell  and  release  the 
imprisoned  powers.  In  reply  it  may  be  suggested  that  the 
law  of  solidarity,  as  set  forth  already  in  these  papers,  seems 
to  countenance  the  Spencerian  theory.  1  grant  it  may 
seem  to  do  so,  but  it  does  not  in  fact.  Though  Society  is 
like  a  body  in  some  respects,  especially  in  the  closeness  of 
its  members  to  each  other,  and  in  their  mutual  interde- 
pendence, it  is  unlike  in  others.  But  even  were  we  to 
admit  their  essential  identity  in  nature,  it  would  not  follow 


SOCIOLOGY   OF    EVOLUTION'.  59 

that  the  fatalistic  notion  of  progress  would  be  favored  or 
confirmed.  Society  grows  as  bodies  do  spontaneously,  and 
yet  there  are  conditions  of  growth,  which  however  they 
may  differ,  are  not  independent  of  the  agency  of  either. 
Back  of  both,  and  animating  both,  there  is  an  intelligent 
principle,  and  through  its  inquiries  and  experiences,  the 
truth  is  soon  realized,  that  physical  advancement  is  insep- 
erable  from  activities,  exercise,  and  other  means  which  call 
for  volition  and  endeavor,  and  that  in  the  same  manner 
social  advancement  demands  forethought  and  a  wise  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  the  desired  end.  Fatalism  is  ruled  out  by 
these  requirements.  As  well  expect  a  babe  abandoned  by 
its  parents,  and  exposed  to  the  fierce  forces  of  nature  to 
acquire  strength  and  the  symmetry  and  proportions  of 
manhood,  as  to  expect  tribes  and  peoples  to  rise  toward 
civilization  through  the  working  of  necessary  causes  which 
involve  neither  human  consideration,  care  nor  skill.  The 
Macawbers  and  Mark  Tapleys,  optimistic  in  all  circum- 
stances, and  ever  looking  for  "something  to  turn  up," 
very  happily  illustrate  what  would  be  the  practical  outcome 
of  the  Sociology  of  Evolution  were  it  to  succeed  in  estab- 
lishing itself  as  just  and  true;  and  from  their  career  we 
can  readily  infer  into  what  dilapidation  and  decay  Society 
would  fall  were  it  unfortunately  to  prevail. 

While  we  have  asserted  the  reality  of  progress  we  are 
not  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  much  can  be  said  and  has 
been  said  on  the  other  side.  Our  pessimists  and  cynics  do 
not  hesitate  to  sneer  at  the  enthusiasm  of  its  defenders, 
and  piteously  characterize  everything  put  forth  on  its  behalf 
as  mere  puffery,  vaporing  and  rhodomontade.  The  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  says: 

One  of  the  ablest  and  most  philosophical  writers  of  our  day  dis- 
courses in  the  Quarterly  concerning  the  hollowuess  of  our  so-called 
age  of  progress.  The  conclusion  at  which  he  arrives  is  that  there  is 
very  much  of  a  uiuclmess  in  mail,  and  that  ''the  heir  of  all  the  ages  in 


00  STUDIKS    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

the  foremost  files  of  time"  differs  but  in  a  tbin  veneer  from  the  aborig- 
inal savage.  Says  this  melancholy  moralist:  Like  the  savage,  the 
Englishman,  Frenchman  or  American  makes  Avar;  like  the  savage  he; 
hunts;  like  the  savage  he  dances;  like  the  savage  he  indulges  in  end- 
less deliberation:  like  the  savage  lie  sets  an  extravagant  value  on  rhet- 
oric; like  the  savage  he  is  a  man  of  party,  with  a  uewspai>er  for  a  totem, 
instead  of  a  mark  on  his  forehead  or  arm;  and  like  a  savage,  he  is  apt 
to  make  of  his  totem  his  god.  He  submits  to  having  these  tastes  and 
pursuits  denounced  in  books,  speeches  or  sermons;  but  he  probably 
derives  acuter  pleasure  from  them  than  from  anything  else  he  does. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  that  these  representations  are  not 
without  some  color  of  truth  ;  and  yet  they  partake  too 
much  of  the  querelous  temper  of  Heraclitus  to  inspire  the 
fullest  confidence.  Evidently  they  exaggerate  the  actual 
infirmities  and  imperfections  of  civilized  humanity  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  We,  of  course,  do  not  deny  that  man 
himself,  more  than  his  environments,  is  the  supreme  test 
of  the  reality  of  progress ;  but  even  thus  judged  we  believe 
impartial  inquirers  will  concede  its  genuineness.  While 
some  of  the  savage  instincts  may  occasionally  reveal  them- 
selves in  his  character  and  pursuits,  and  while  fanciful 
philosophers  may  be  able  to  institute  amusing  comparisons, 
place  an  average  Englishman  and  an  average  wild  child  of 
the  American  forest  side  by  side,  and  the  differences  that 
separate  will  so  far  outnumber  those  which  unite,  that  re- 
lationship between  them  will  seem  impossible  ;  and  main- 
tain that  the  former  was  in  bygone  ages  substantially  like 
the  Indian  of  the  present  and  you  will  have  proven  de- 
cisively that  progress  is  no  dream.  It  is  unhappily  true, 
that  men  in  the  most  refined  and  enlightened  countries 
are  weak,  frail,  grasping,  sometimes  cruel  and  frequently 
unjust ;  but  when  compared  with  men  of  other  times 
they  have  every  reason  for  congratulation.  The  bad 
rulers  of  our  day  are  not  so  notoriously  wicked  as  the 
Neros  and  Caligulas  of  the  past ;  the  licentiousness  of 
the  moderns  is  not  so  abominably  indecent  as  that  of  tliq 


PROGRESS   DOUBTED  61 

ancients ;  and  all  the  tricks,  frauds,  and  wrongs  com- 
mitted by  our  most  heartless  and  avaricous  monopolists 
sink  into  insignificance  and  smell  of  Heaven  before  the 
murderous  and  rapacious  outrages  of  such  monsters  as 
Oppianicus,  and  other  citizens,  like  himself,  who  rendered 
infamous  the  expiring  years  of  the  Roman  Republic. 
Moreover,  though  the  question  at  issue  is  more  a  question 
of  manhood  than  of  achievement,  yet  achievement  itself, 
revealing  as  it  does  a  type  of  manhood,  cannot  be  ignored 
in  coming  to  a  conclusion  on  this  subject.  Man  expresses 
himself  in  his  works.  He  discloses  himself  in  the  govern- 
ments he  founds,  the  charities  he  organizes,  the  books  lie 
writes,  the  arts  he  fosters,  the  religion  he  cherishes,  the 
obstacles  he  overcomes,  the  appliances  he  invents,  the  dis- 
coveries he  makes,  and  the  enterprises  he  inaugurates  ; 
and  thus  judged  man  to-day  is  immeasurably  in  advance  of 
his  ancestors. 

But  to  this  it  will  be  said  that  there  are  monstrous  dis- 

• 

crepancies  disfiguring  Society,  which  are  hard  to  reconcile 
with  this  view.  Of  these  we  are  only  too  painfully  con- 
scious to  attempt  a  denial.  We  agree  with  what  Rev. 
James  Martineau  writes  regarding  certain  bitter  and  ap- 
palling contrasts  in  England,  and  recognize  their  existence 
to  some  degree  in  America,  and  still  we  adhere  to  our  opti- 
mistic faith." 

"Our  country,"  he  says  "is  a  vast  congery  of  exaggerations. 
Enormous  wealth  and  saddest  poverty,  sumptuous  idleness  and  unre- 
warded toil,  princely  provision  for  learning  and  the  most  degrading 
ignorance,  a  large  amount  of  laborious  philanthropy,  but  a  larger  of 
unconquered  misery  and  sin,  terrify  us  with  their  dreadful  contrasts 
of  light  and  shade.  It  is  appalling  to  think  of  the  moral  cost  by 
which  England  has  become  materially  great.  Where  is  the  laborer 
by  whose  hand  the  soil  has  been  tilled?  In  a  cabin  with  his  children, 
where  the  domestic  decencies  cannot  be.  I  know  not  which  is  the 
most  heathenish,  the  guilty  negligence  of  our  lofty  men,  or  the  fear- 
ful degradation  of  the  law." 
11 


62  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

A  pathetic  and  not  an  unfaithful  picture  this.  But  it 
snould  never  be  forgotten  that  time  has  been  when  there 
was  hardly  anything  except  poverty  in  the  world,  when 
there  was  practically  no  philanthropy  at  all,  when  ignor- 
ance was  the  rule  even  among  princes,  when  toil  was  per- 
formed by  slaves  or  serfs,  who  had  no  prospect  of  ever 
being  anything  better,  when  indecencies  were  common  in 
palaces  as  in  huts  and  were  openly  paraded  on  the  printed 
page,  and  when  there  was  no  morality  worthy  the  name  to 
give  in  exchange  for  material  prosperity.  Bad  as  our  age 
is,  it  is  not  the  worst ;  selfish  and  vicious  as  our  generation 
may  be,  it  is  not  as  utterly  conscienceless  and  heartless  as 
some  of  the  generations  which  have  preceded  it  ;  and  in 
advantages,  opportunities,  and  privileges  the  blindest 
must  see  that  it  is  far  ahead  of  all  others. 

The  deplorable  circumstances  and  unfortunate  tenden- 
cies which  warrant  complaint,  only  indicate  that  progress 
has  not  reached  the  zenith;  they  do  not  justify  the  dis- 
couraging opinion  that  it  is  an  illusion  and  sham.  Our 
readiness  to  detect  incongruities  and  apparent  contradic- 
tions, combined  with  our  promptness  to  denounce  evils  old 
or  new,  is  itself  a  sign  of  elevation  and  prophetic  of  a 
further  onward  movement.  Discernment  of  wrong  and 
woe  implies  at  least  that  sufficient  light  has  come  to  bring 
them  into  relief.  It  means  that  men  have  climbed  high 
when  they  can  see  clearly  the  shadows  and  darkness  that 
settle  on  the  vales  beneath.  The  sun  has  risen,  only  its 
path  is  thick  with  storm-breeding  clouds;  the  chariot  rolls 
forward,  only  its  wheels  are  splashed  with  mud  and  slime; 
the  army  advances  to  victory,  only  it  leaves  many  dead  and 
wounded  on  the  field.  It  is  vain  for  Fronde  to  argue  as  he 
does  in  his  Short  Studies  that  the  modern  world  is  distin- 
guished more  by  change  than  progress;  for  the  changes  he 
notes,  such  as  the  alteration  in  the  pursuits  and  manners 
of  the  gentry  and  clergy,  the  modification  of  the  old  ap- 


THE   OKOrXD    OF    HOPE.  63 

prentice  system  with  its  barbarities,  the  enlightenment  and 
enfranchisement  of  the  people,  with  all  the  fresh  discover- 
ies of  science  and  their  application  in  unnumbered  inven- 
tions to  the  needs  of  the  race,  are  themselves  signs  of 
genuine  progress,  though  we  may  not  yet  have  fully  acquired 
the  act  of  adapting  ourselves  to  the  new  condition  of  things 
or  of  averting  the  temporary  evils  which  it  entails.  He  is 
undoubtedly  correct  when  he  writes,  "The  upward  climb 
has  ever  been  a  steep  and  thorny  one,  involving,  first  of  all, 
the  forgetfulness  of  self,  the  worship  of  which  in  the  creed 
of  the  economist,  is  the  mainspring  of  advance;"  but  he  is 
wrong  when  he  insinuates  that  there  has  been  no  "climb" 
whatever.  We  are  certainly  not  enamored  with  Society 
as  it  is;  we  have  conceded  its  awful  extremes  of  misery  and 
happiness;  only  we  are  not  blind  to  its  superiority  over  the 
past,  and  its  promise  of  nobler  achievements  in  the  future. 
Of  this  hope  Froude  himself  is  not  altogether  destitute,  for 
he  says,  "  That  the  change  will  come,  if  not  to  us  in  Eng- 
land, yet  to  our  posterity  somewhere  upon  the  planet,  ex- 
perience forbids  us  to  doubt";  but  "experience  "  warrants 
no  such  thing  if  during  thousands  of  years  of  history  we 
have  only  witnessed,  changes  and  nothing  more.  Our  criti- 
cism is  not  that  he  exaggerates  existing  evil,  but  that  he  is 
so  willfully  oblivious  to  the  good  as  to  undermine  all  reason- 
able expectation  of  any  great  and  wholesome  improvement. 
As  Tennyson  sings,  it  is  what  men  have  done  that  is  the 
earnest  of  what  they  can  and  shall  do;  and  we  grant  were  it 
not  for  this  assurance  we  should  find  no  promise  anywhere 
of  a  time  to  come  when  capital  shall  no  longer  be  endangered 
by  its  own  greed,  or  labor  be  imperilled  by  its  own  passions, 
or  law  be  dishonored  by  its  injustice,  or  taxation  be  dis- 
graced by  its  inequalities.  But  seeing  this,  believing  this, 
we  can  with  confidence  echo  the  inspiring  strain  of  the 
poet : 


64  STUDIES  Itf  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

Men,  my  brothers,  men  the  workers  ever  reaping  something  new; 
That  which  they  have  done,  but  earnest  of  the  things  that  they  shall  do. 
For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see, 
Saw  the  vision  of  the  world  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be.  • 
Saw  the  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails, 
Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight  dropping  down  with  costly  bales; 
Lo!  the  war-drums  throb  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  arc  furled, 
In  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Froude,  when  illogically  conceding  the  probability 
of  a  tomorrow  more  radiant  than  all  the  yesterdays  of 
history,  declares  that  "the  manner  of  it  is  hopelessly  ob- 
scure." This  is  not  unlikely  ;  for  man  being  a  free  entity, 
having  unexplorable  resources,  it  is  very  difficult  to  antic- 
ipate what  means  or  methods  he  may  employ  in  years  to 
come  for  the  actualization  of  tradition's  golden  dream. 
The  star-maps  of  the  past  do  not  enable  us  to  cast  a  reliable 
horoscope,  and  by  no  ingenious  astrological  scheme  can 
we  foretell  what  shall  be  in  the  unborn  ages.  But  our 
short-sightedness  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  apathy  or  reck- 
lessness. We  should  never  forget  that,  while  the  future 
of  the  race  may  turn  on  unforeseen  developments,  it  is  our 
duty  still  to  work,  and  to  work  patiently  and  thoughtfully, 
in  the  direction  of  progress  ;  and  I  am  persuaded  however 
exceptional  events  may  contribute  toward  this  consumma- 
tion, that  it  will  materially  be  promoted  by  the  same 
agencies,  forces  and  conditions  which  have  served  it 
throughout  the  centuries.  What  these  are  we  ought  to 
ascertain ;  and  \n  addition  we  ought  to  familiarize  our- 
selves with  the  peculiar  phases,  varying  circumstances,  and 
underlying  principles  which  have  distinguished  the  onward 
march  of  humanity  from  the  beginning.  Such  inquiries 
as  these  will  enable  us  to  estimate  more  justly  the  character 
of  our  own  period;  will  assist  us  to  a  satisfactory  explana- 
tion of  its  more  threatening  aspects;  will  go  far  toward 
counteracting  apprehension  and  discouragement,  and  will 
not  only  stimulate,  but  will  also  serve  to  direct  endeavor. 


FROM    LO\V   TO   HIGH.  65 

In  pursuing  this  retrospect  we  can  hardly  fail  to  per- 
ceive at  the  outset  that  progress  is  impossible  apart  from 
adequate  incentives ;  and  these  according  to  Mr.  George 
may  be  summed  up  in  "the  desire  to  gratify  the  wants  of 
the  animal  nature,  the  wants  of  the  intellectual  nature,  and 
the  wants  of  the  sympathetic  nature ;  the  desire  to  be,  to 
know,  and  to  do — desires  that  short  of  infinity  can  never 
be  satisfied,  as  they  grow  by  what  they  feed  on."  Un- 
questionably necessity,  necessity  made  painfully  real  by 
losses,  privations  and  sufferings,  has  ever  stirred  up  the 
race  and  impelled  it  onward.  This  is  apparent  in  the 
history  of  Israel's  deliverance  from  Egypt.  The  people 
cried  out  because  of  cruel  bondage,  and  because  heartless 
injustice  linked  itself  with  slavery.  They  grew  des- 
perate, were  ready  to  follow  any  leader  and  attempt  any 
dangerous  venture.  In  this  respect  they  illustrate  the 
primal  cause  of  social  elevation— the  tyranny  of  cold  and 
hunger;  the  pitiless  savagery  of  savage  nature  quickened 
the  inventive  faculties  of  man  to  shield  himself  from  their 
assaults,  and  to  render  himself  in  some  good  degree  inde- 
pendent of  their  power.  And  since  then  movements  in- 
augurated to  suppress  vassalage,  to  exterminate  feudalism, 
to  achieve  political  and  religious  liberty,  to  exalt  industry, 
and  to  effect  reforms  in  government  have  rarely  proceeded 
from  the  great,  the  prospered,  the  refined,  the  noble,  but 
from  those  who  felt  most  keenly  the  wrongs  and  outrages 
which  were  being  perpetrated.  Froissart,  having  referred 
to  the  fact  that  the  nobles  of  England  kept  the  commons 
in  "servage,"  writes:  "These  unhappy  people  began  to 
stir  because  they  said  they  were  kept  in  servage,  and  in  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  they  said,  there  were  no  bonds- 
men. They  were  men  formed  in  the  similitude  of  their 
lords  ;  why  should  they  be  so  kept  under  as  beasts  ?"  And 
if  it  had  not  been  for  their  murmurings — now  waxing  into 
a  roar  of  indignation,  now  summoning  the  preaching  John 


66  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

Balls  and  the  fighting  Watt  Tylers  and  Cades,  with  tattered 
thousands  at  their  heels,  and  then  invoking  the  Jacobins 
of  last  century  and  the  Chartists  of  this — industry  in 
England  would  still  be  in  chains,  and  the  Constitution  of 
that  country  would  be  very  different  from  what  it  is.  The 
rights  which  the  people  enjoy  in  that  favored  land,  their 
exemption  from  arbitrary  taxation,  and  the  privileges  of 
representation  in  parliament,  they  do  not  owe  to  the  kindly 
acts  of  their  kings  and  peers,  but  to  their  own  sturdy  pro- 
tests and  vigorous  blows.  The  liberty  of  conscience,  which 
nearly  all  nations  now  enjoy,  was  not  conferred  by  popes 
or  bishops.  Ecclesiastical  dignitaries  never  understood  its 
grandeur  and  never  raised  so  much  as  a  little  finger  to 
achieve  it  for  the  world.  No ;  it  was  left  to  despised 
Quakers,  Anabaptists,  and  Unitarians  to  contend  for  it 
and  win  it.  In  other  words,  social  progress,  whether 
springing  from  political  emancipation,  religious  freedom, 
or  the  exaltation  of  industry,  finds  its  source  in  the  weary, 
toiling  masses.  And  as  it  has  been,  so  very  likely  it  will 
continue  to  be.  It  is  not  your  capitalists,  your  monopo- 
lists, your  aristocrats,  who  have  no  desires  ungratified,  and 
who  have  no  particular  burdens  to  complain  of,  who  will, 
of  their  own  accord  and  uninfluenced  by  popular  clamor, 
take  the  lead  in  correcting  abuses  or  in  radically  changing 
for  the  better  the  condition  of  the  poor.  If  help  comes  to 
the  laboring  classes,  it  must  come  mainly  from  themselves. 
They  must  fight  their  own  battles,  and  win  their  own 
victories.  How  they  are  to  do  so  we  do  not  here  discuss — 
it  will  receive  attention  by  and  by — but  we  may  say,  as 
indeed  we  have  already,  to  prevent  misapprehension,  that 
violence  and  lawlessness  will  not  succeed ;  for  the  rude 
days  are  past  when  the  guillotine  could  hope  to  regenerate 
a  nation.  Now  we  are  to  learn  from  the  relation  of  suf- 
fering to  progress  that  the  wrongs,  wretchedness,  misery, 
and  oppressions  of  our  times,  which  we  are  all  bound  to 


VALUE   OF   IDEALS.  67 

condemn,  and  which  often  afflict  us  with  despondency,  will 
ultimately  rouse  those  who  endure  them  to  such  combined 
action  as  shall  bring  deliverance  and  with  it  new  advan- 
tages to  Society ;  and  we  are  also  to  learn,  when  the 
thunders  roar  prophetic  of  this  onward  movement  of  the 
people,  neither  to  quake  Avith  fear  nor  tremble  with  dismay ; 
for  when  they  are  heard  the  night  will  be  fast  hastening 
into  day. 

Herbert  Spencer  says  truly:  "An  ideal,  far  in  advance 
of  practicability  though  it  may  be,  is  always  needful  for 
right  guidance.  If,  amid  all  those  compromises  which  the 
circumstances  of  the  times  necessitate,  or  are  thought  to 
necessitate,  there  exists  no  true  conception  of  better  and 
worse  in  social  organization — if  nothing  beyond  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  moment  are  attended  to,  and  the  proximately  best 
is  habitually  identified  with  the  ultimately  best — there 
cannot  be  any  true  progress.  However  distant  may  be  the 
goal,  and  however  often  intervening  obstacles  may  necessi- 
tate deviation  in  our  course  toward  it,  it  is  obviously  requi- 
site to  know  whereabouts  it  lies."  Fair  ideals  constitute 
the  most  potent  of  incentives.  Driven  at  first  by  hard 
necessity  humanity  comes  to  need  the  undimmed  visions  of 
seers  and  prophets  to  inspire  it  with  aims  of  the  most  exalted 
character,  and  without  such  aims  its  labors  must  end  in  a 
refined  species  of  animalism.  The  danger  still  is  that  indi- 
viduals and  communities  will  content  themselves  with  the 
comparatively  good,  and  will  fail  ardently  to  seek  the  super- 
latively good.  Lord  Jeffrey,  many  years  ago,  insisted  that 
the  limits  of  progress  had  been  reached,  and  thousands 
still  are  incredulous  of  any  radical  improvement  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  race,  unless  it  may  be  in  the  direction  of  better 
dwellings  for  the  lowly,  and  possibly  in  the  addition  of  sugar 
for  their  coffee  and  butter  with  their  bread.  Such  senti- 
ments as  these  are  to  be  deplored.  Convince  the  masses  of 
the  people  that  they  are  true;  that  tyrants  are  never  to  be 


68  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

overthrown;  that  magistrates  are  never  to  befriend  the  poor; 
that  hungry  mouths  are  never  to  be  filled  with  bread;  that 
partisanship,  jealousy  and  cruelty,  are  never  to  cease,  and 
that  crime,  lust  and  war  are  never  to  end,  and  the  signal 
will  be  given  for  savage  recklessness  or  for  sullen  discontent 
and  apathy;  but  bring  them  to  realize  that  we  are  hastening 
to  the  day  when  justice,  liberty,  fraternity  and  peace,  shall 
triumph;  when  virtue  shall  reign  and  the  fair  gifts  of  God 
shall  be  within  the  reach  of  every  man,  and  life  everywhere 
be  garlanded  with  joy  and  beauty,  then  shall  all  hearts 
thrill  with  hope,  and  all  hands  be  strengthened  patiently  to 
work  out  a  destiny  so  glorious.  This  lesson  has.  repeatedly 
been  taught,  especially  is  it  conspicuous  in  the  history  of 
Feudalism.  When  we  turn  to  the  dark  ages  we  find  insti- 
tutions very  different  from  those  which  exist  in  our  times. 
Barons  ruled  and  serfs  tilled  their  lands  and  followed  their 
banners.  There  were  distinct  classes,  and  these  were  pet- 
rified so  that  there  was  no  interblending  and  no  ascent  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher,  unless  in  a  few  extraordinary  in- 
stances, particularly  in  the  domains  of  religion  and  art. 
Feudalism,  in  a  word,  was  rigid,  hard,  narrow;  was  like  the 
old  parched  skins  described  by  Christ,  without  elasticity, 
into  which  the  new  fermenting  wine  of  progress  could  not 
be  poured  without  rending  and  destroying  the  system  alto- 
gether. It  contemplated  no  such  thing  as  changes;  it  had 
no  place  for  the  inquiring,  enterprising  spirit  of  innovation, 
and  when  this  spirit  ventured  to  appear  it  was  thoroughly 
outraged  and  indignant.  What  was  the  result?  Why,  it 
prevented  for  a  long  period  any  radical  departures  from  the 
established  order,  and  not  until  ideals  born  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  the  Reformation  quickened  the  minds  and  energies 
of  the  people  was  an  onward  movement  possible;  but  when 
it  commenced  it  was  irresistible,  and,  like  pent-up  waters 
seeking  their  natural  channels,  swept  over  and  overwhelmed 
all  barriers.  So  let  us  learn  from  this  upheaval,  if  we  would 


BACKWARD    MOVEMENTS.  69 

contribute  to  the  growth  of  human  happiness  and  prosperity, 
not  only  to  abandon  the  scurrilous  and  disparaging  temper 
of  the  deformed  Thersites,  but  to  discover  and  display  before 
the  longing  eyes  of  the  world  the  purest  and  noblest  incen- 
tives, and  carefully  avoid  the  adoption  of  social  theories  and 
customs  utterly  at  variance  with  their  possible  realization. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  and  one  that  ought  not  to  be  over- 
looked in  such  a  study  as  this,,  that  progress  is  frequently 
liable  to  interruptions.  Pauses  occur  along  the  line  of  its 
march,  periods  of  arrest,  and  even  of  retrogression.  But 
these  breaks  and  chasms,  these  relapses  and  deteriorations, 
while  bewildering  and  discouraging,  are  not  to  be  regarded 
as  altogether  unnatural  or  useless.  They  are  to  be  de- 
plored; but  they  seem  to  be  unavoidable  and  not  entirely 
without  promise  of  help  and  blessing.  Mr.  Sumner  states 
on  good  authority  that  the  muddy  Arve,  a  river  in  Switz- 
erland, when  swollen  by  floods,  drives  the  clearer  Rhone, 
with  whose  waters  it  mingles,  back  into  the  lake  of 
Geneva.  At  such  a  time  the  confluent  streams  retreat 
with  so  much  violence  from  their  natural  channel  that 
mill  wheels  revolve  reversely,  and  floating  drift  is  borne 
toward  the  source  from  whence  it  came.  But  this  sin- 
gular countermotion,  regression,  or  regurgitation  is  not 
without  advantages.  The  Rhone,  defiled  by  the  Arve,  is 
recleansed  by  its  bath  in  the  lake,  and  is  reinforced  by  the 
rush  of  downward-flowing  currents,  so  that  on  returning 
to  its  course  it  sweeps  forward  with  greater  velocity  than 
ever,  and  with  increased  translucency.  As  a  consequence 
these  qualities  are  imparted  to  all  the  waters  with  which  it 
blends  in  its  journey  to  the  sea;  and  thus  its  temporary 
refluent  action  becomes  a  permanent  and  wide  spread 
benefit  when  it  is  profluent  again.  In  a  similar  manner 
we  likewise  find  that  the  pauses,  alternations,  and  inter- 
missions, which  diversify  the  course  of  social  advancement, 
in  the  long  run  operate  in  its  favor.  This  the  Scriptures 


70  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

strikingly  illustrate.  The  Jews  did  not  follow  a  straight 
path  from  Egypt  to  Canaan.  They  were  compelled  to 
pursue  a  zigzag  course,  to  retrace  their  steps,  and  by  a  cir- 
cuitous route  attain  the  end  of  their  journeyings.  After 
they  possessed  their  own  lands  they  did  not  attain  to  the 
blessings  of  Solomon's  kingdom  without  discouraging  back- 
sets, losses,  and  deteriorations.  The  nation  went  forward; 
but  in  doing  so  at  times  it  went  backward,  revealing  the 
fact  that  progress  is  accomplished  very  much  as  we  scale 
the  Alps — we  have  to  go  up  and  down  many  smaller  hills,  all 
leading  to  a  higher  level  and  at  last  to  the  summit;  and 
thus  have  we  to  climb  in  pursuit  of  social  perfection.  The 
law  of  progress  in  this  respect  is  not  unlike  that  of  the 
century-plant.  We  find  that  flower  blooming  once  every 
hundred  years.  A  process  of  retrogression  then  sets  in, 
the  stream  of  life  runs  low,  and  then  recovering  itself 
slowly  ascends  until  it  bursts  forth  in  new  though  transient 
beauty.  We  have  corresponding  seasons  in  history.  The 
times  of  Pericles  in  Greece,  for  instance,  when  civilization 
seemed  at  its  fairest;  and  yet  it  declined,  not  to  revive 
until  the  Augustan  era  of  Eome.  Roman  greatness  suc- 
cumbed to  the  iron  blows  of  the  Goths,  and  progress 
seemed  at  an  end.  But  it  was  not  so.  The  tide  flowed 
again,  and  has  risen  just  as  the  waters  creep  upward  along 
the  shore,  by  advances  and  retreats,  by  push  and  recoil, 
by  incoming  and  outgoing.  Hence  we  have  the  brilliant 
age  of  Elizabeth  followed  by  darkness,  darkness  dispelled 
by  the  Puritans,  restored  anew  by  the  Stuarts,  dispersed 
once  more  by  the  Whigs,  and  fluctuating  since  the  days  of 
William  of  Orange  until  the  present.  Other  countries 
reveal  a  similar  series  of  reactionary  movements,  all  lead- 
ing to  increasing  and  more  permanent  light.  We  do  not 
doubt  but  that  we  have  all  that  is  of  real  value  in  the  civ- 
ilizations of  Egypt,  Greece,  or  Rome  preserved  to  us;  that 
only  the  transient  and  the  useless  have  perished;  that  they 


SIGNS   OF   RETROGRESSION.  71 

«r 

have  perished  to  prevent  the  world  being  unduly  encum- 
bered and  burdened,  and  to  teach  that  this  process  is  a 
sifting  and  refining  one.  By  this  means  an  immense 
amount  of  rubbish  is  gotten  rid'  of.  Moreover,  just  as  the 
lion  draws  back  to  gather  strength  for  its  onward  spring, 
and  just  as  the  winds  appear  to  be  gathered  by  unseen 
hands  into  the  cavern  of  the  clouds  before  they  leap  forth 
to  ravage  and  destroy,  so  providence  seems  to  permit  sea- 
sons of  retrogressions  in  which  shall  be  so  keenly  realized 
the  world's  needs  that  the  energies  of  Society  shall  be  col- 
lected and  concentrated  for  a  new  endeavor  to  rend  evil 
and  beat  down  wrong.  Signs  are  not  wanting  of  deterio- 
ation  among  us,  even  in  this  land  as  well  as  in  others — 
deterioration  threatening  for  the  moment  to  arrest  eleva- 
tion. Strangest  fluctuations  mark  and  disturb  the  conti- 
nuity of  modern  improvement;  and  as  the  shadows  on  the 
dial  of  Ahaz  went  backward  ten  degrees,  so  now  at  times 
the  hands  of  the  horologe  of  this  brilliant  era  appear  as 
though  they  might  possibly  turn  once  more  toward  night 
and  savageness.  With  governments  professedly  humane, 
with  enlarged  benevolence — perhaps  too  large  for  the 
interests  of  justice — and  with  multiplied  publications  and 
diversified  religions,  possibly  too  many  of  both  for  the  real 
welfare  of  community — there  are  yet  reactionary  move- 
ments observable  on  every  side.  AVars  startle  us  in  one 
direction,  financial  panics  in  another,  and  iconoclastic 
politics  and  infidelities  in  yet  another. 

On  the  authority  of  Morel,  Mitchell,  Engel,  and  Galton 
we  are  led  to  fear  that  "social  agencies  are  unsuspectedly 
working  toward  the  degeneration  of  humanity,"  and  as 
Galton  expresses  it:  "  Our  race  is  overweighted  and  likely 
to  be  drudged  into  degeneracy  by  demands  that  exceed  its 
powers.  With  the  deterioration  of  the  condition  of  the 
masses,  their  organizations  and  functions,  there  will  be 
plenty  of  idiots,  but  very  few  great  men."  We  all  know, 


72  STUDIES  IX  SOCIAL   LIFE. 

though  we  may  not  stop  long  enough  to  ponder  its  signifi- 
cance, that  terrible  scourges  accompany  our  much-praised 
civilization.  Labor  in  factories,  where  mineral,  vegetable, 
and  animal  dust,  with  pernicious  gases,  are  inhaled,  or 
where  poisons  such  as  copper,  lead,  arsenic,  tobacco,  and 
phosphorus  have  to  be  handled,  is  productive  of  weakness, 
decrepitude,  sores,  and  premature  death.  Dark  and  sti- 
fling mines,  damp  and  chill  basements,  reeking  and  filthy 
tenements,  excessive  heat  from  furnaces,  and  excessive 
cold  from  ice-chambers,  combined  with  the  inconveniences 
which  generally  attend  the  lowly  in  crowded  cities,  must 
undermine  the  constitution,  and  engender  diseases.  Such 
are  the  effects  of  pursuits  which  have  largely  to  do  with 
the  preeminence  of  the  century.  We  seem  to  be  living 
where  two  streams  meet,  one  of  progress,  the  other  of 
retrogression,  and  the  current  and  counter-current  lead 
naturally  enough  to  varying  estimates  of  the  age.  Some 
see  only  the  good,  and  others  only  the  evil.  But  we 
should  recognize  both,  and  we  should  try  to  realize  that 
even  the  evil,  terrible  as  it  is,  is  not  without  promise  of 
compensation.  There  will  be  a  reaction.  The  swing  of 
the  pendulum  to  one  side  will  bring  it  back  to  the  other. 
The  gravity  of  the  peril  to  humanity,  if  no  speedy  remedy 
is  found,  the  depth  of  the  abyss  toward  which  it  is  gravi- 
tating, will  arouse  slumbering  energies,  which  when  fully 
enlisted,  will  make  a  clean  sweep  of  deteriorating  agencies 
and  conditions,  and  the  rebound  will  carry  social  hap- 
piness and  prosperity  forward  to  a  higher  point  than  they 
have  yet  attained. 

Proceeding  with  our  inquiry,  we  now  come  to  the  consid- 
eration of  some  of  the  more  important  means  and  forces 
which  have  contributed  to  progress  in  the  past,  and  which 
will  undoubtedly  influence  it  in  the  future.  Recognizing, 
as  we  have  done,  that  it  originated  in  adequate  incentives, 
incentives  that  are  still  indispensable,  and  having  attempted 


FATALISM    AXD    PROGRESS.  73 

to  explain  the  significance  of  its  vicissitudes,  we  are  pre- 
pared to  examine  and  estimate  the  various  streams  by  which 
its  waters  have  been  fed.  Eminent,  if  not  preeminent, 
among  these  ranks  man's  consciousness  of  personal  inde- 
pendence. We  mean  by  the  term  "independence,"  first  of 
all,  the  superiority  of  individuals  and  communities  to  the 
circumstances  which  surround  them,  and  the  clear  convic- 
tion on  their  part  that  they  were  never  designed  to  be  the 
helpless  slaves  of  their  environments,  or  of  a  hard,  soulless 
Fate.  The  enlargement  from  undue  governmental  inter- 
ference, as  we  shall  see,  tends  to  quicken  their  energies  and 
develop  their  resources;  but  in  an  equal  degree  the  abiding 
realization  of  their  substantial  freedom  from  the  iron  rule 
of  enthroned  Necessity,  bringing  with  it  the  sense  of  duty 
and  responsibility,  stimulates  ambition  and  multiplies  ac- 
tivities. In  our  opinion,  the  prevalence  of  the  opposite 
doctrine  among  Oriental  nations  largely  accounts  for  their 
stagnation  and  immobility.  There  are  times,  unquestion- 
ably, when  Fatalism  may  exert  a  salutary  influence;  but 
these  seasons  are  comparatively  rare.  When  tribes  are 
struggling  for  supremacy,  when  a  new  faith  enters  on  its 
career,  or  when  an  old  dynasty  is  to  be  overthrown,  and 
before  opportunity  has  been  afforded  for  thorough  scrutiny 
into  all  the  bearings  of-  this  paralyzing  dogma,  it  may 
rouse  enthusiasm  and  inspire  heroic  endeavor  to  believe 
that  the  unchangeable  purposes  of  the  Changeless  Deities 
are  on  the  side  of  the  aspiring  innovators.  But  when  the 
rage  and  fury  of  these  enterprises  have  passed  away,  and 
the  successful  fighters  and  reformers  have  settled  down  to 
the  cold,  stern,  commonplaces  of  life,  apathy  steals  over 
them,  and  supine  indifference  takes  the  place  of  energetic 
ardor.  Such  has  been  the  working  of  the  doctrine  in  India 
and  China;  and  such  would  have  been  its  effect  in  Europe 
had  not  Calvinism  been  tempered  and  modified  by  philoso- 
phy; and  such  must  ever  be  its  ultimate  outcome  where- 


74  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

ever  it  prevails  absolutely  and  without  admixture.  Nor  is 
this  inference  forced  and  unreasonable.  Were  it  possible 
to  convince  men  that  their  thinking  is  mechanical  and 
their  acting  mechanical,  and  that  both  are  preordained,  the 
life  of  social  progress  would  be  killed.  Enterprise  would 
be  arrested  by  the  discouraging  thought  that  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  reverse,  revoke,  or  modify  the  rigid  laws  which  are 
driving  us  onward  to  our  unavoidable  destiny.  Why  at- 
tempt anything,  when  we  might  just  as  well  forego  all 
labor  and  drift  as  helpless  as  the  autumn  leaves  toward 
eternity?  We  are  satisfied  from  what  we  know  of  man 
that  the  indestructible  sense  of  personal  liberty  underlies 
most  of  his  great  achievements,  that  it  has  stimulated  him 
to  measure  strength  with  the  fiercest  elements  of  nature, 
and  has  fired  him  with  an  enthusiasm  for  the  highest  pos- 
sible development  of  the  race.  Hence  the  importance,  if 
we  would  see  progress  progressing,  of  maintaining  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people  generally  a  clear  conviction  of  their 
freedom,  and  of  refraining  from  everything  that  would 
tend  to  its  obscuration.  But,  it  will  be  asked  by  those 
who  think  that  they  are  damaging  Christianity,  and  who 
do  not  realize  that  their  sentiments  imperil  civilization,  is 
it  not  true,  as  Mr.  Buckle  has  taught,  "that  human  beings 
act  necessarily  from  the  impulse  of  outward  circumstances 
upon  their  mental  and  bodily  condition  ? "  "Food,  soil,  cli- 
mate— do  not  these  make  up  the  man,  and  determine  what 
he  must  be?"  So  it  is  affirmed  by  some  who  are  called  philo- 
sophical radicals.  Indeed  the  burden  of  modern  infidelity- 
is  that  "  man  is  a  plant  who  grows  and  thinks,  his  growth 
and  thought  being  no  more  dependent  on  his  volition  than 
the  action  of  a  steam  engine  is  on  some  self-determining 
power  within.  Such  a  theory  we  hold  to  be  untenable,  and 
the  judgment  of  our  best  thinkers  condemns  it.  We  admit 
that  circumstances  have  no  inconsiderable  degree  of  power 
over  man;  but  we  hold  that  he  is  not  enslaved  by  them, 


SOPHISMS   OF    PHILOSOPHY.  75 

and  can  conquer  them.  Climate  and  soil  are  important 
factors,  but  they  do  not  account  for  the  differences  between 
tribes  and  peoples.  It  is  said  the  Spaniards  are  supersti- 
tious because  their  country  is  volcanic,  but  no  good  reason 
is  given  why  the  Japanese,  who  inhabit  also  a  volcanic 
territory,  hardly  believe  in  anything  supernatural.  Why 
should  the  citizens  of  Belgium  be  more  prosperous  than 
the  citizens  of  Ireland?  and  why  is  it  that  districts  in  Asia, 
as  fertile  as  the  best  fields  of  Europe,  are  not  as  highly 
civilized?  It  is  claimed  that  the  explanation  is  to  be  found 
in  the  diverse  character  of  the  races;  but  if  that  is  the 
case,  what  caused  the  races  to  differ?  This  scandalous 
hypothesis  breaks  down  as  soon  as  it  is  scrutinized.  Were 
it  true,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  construct  a  science  of 
humanity,  just  as  we  have  a  science  of  astronomy.  If  man 
belongs  to  the  complex  mechanism  of  nature,  why  not 
calculate  all  his  movements  in  advance,  foreshow  his 
moods  as  we  do  the  weather,  and  predict  his  misfortunes 
as  we  do  an  eclipse  of  the  sun?  But  this  can  not  be  done; 
and  the  fact  that  it  can  not,  even  in  the  case  of  an  indi- 
vidual, and  by  a  mother  who  has  studied  him  from  the 
dawn  of  life,  is  proof  that  he  is  an  unknown  power,  a  free 
personality,  and  that  he  belongs  to  a  higher  order  than 
that  which  embraces  trees,  horses,  and  oxen.  We  do  not 
lay  stress  on  the  argument  derived  from  consciousness  in 
favor  of  freedom;  but  we  do  insist  that  the  involuntary 
testimony  of  life  is  on  its  side;  for,  in  all  relations, 
and  in  all  situations,  save  where  this  subject  is  under 
discussion,  we  ponder,  we  weigh  motives,  we  resolve, 
and  in  every  way  act  as  though  we  were  indeed  free 
creatures,  having  our  interests  and  destiny  within  our 
own  keeping.  Professor  Francis  Bowen,  of  Harvard 
College,  to  whose  admirable  review  of  Buckle's  History 
of  Civilization  we  admit  our  indebtedness,  character- 
izes the  doctrine  on  which  we  animadvert  "simply  as 


76  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

ludicrous/'  and  sharply  adds:  ""We  should  almost  suspect 
the  sanity  of  one  who  seriously  entertained  it;"  and  Mr. 
Froude,  in  his  Short  Studies  of  Great  Subjects,  has  very 
clearly  exposed  its  weakness  and  worthlessness.  Among 
other  points  made  against  it  by  the  last-named  writer,  is 
one  that  turns  on  what  may  be  described  as  the  "surprises 
of  history."  We  quote  his  thought  rather  than  his  words. 
He  shows  that  events  have  been  taking  place  which  no 
"law  of  averages,"  and  no  scientific  balancing  of  probabili- 
ties could  have  anticipated.  Tacitus  could  never  have 
been  convinced  that  a  German  Emperor,  successor  of  the 
Caesars,  would  ever  hold  the  stirrup  of  a  Pope,  successor 
of  fishermen  apostles;  and  equally  contrary  to  all  reason- 
able expectation  is  the  rise  and  vigor  of  Mormonism  in  a 
land  whose  traditions  and  convictions  run  in  favor  of 
Monogamy,  and  the  spread  of  the  superstition  known  as 
Spiritualism  in  an  age  of  culture,  inquiry,  and  rationalism. 
Gibbon  claimed  that  the  era  of  conquerors  was  at  an  end, 
and  yet  had  he  lived  longer  he  would  have  seen  Europe 
overrun  by  Napoleon;  and  Buckle  himself  gravely  declared 
that  there  would  be  no  more  great  wars,  and  yet  the  world 
has  witnessed  since  this  confident  prediction  was  uttered 
the  gigantic  conflict  between  France  and  Germany.  It  is 
evident  from  these  "surprises"  that  the  movements  of 
man  are  not  calculable,  "whatever  may  be  the  data  at  hand, 
and  that  he  is  not  to  be  classed  with  atoms  or  masses  which 
have  no  power  of  volition  or  liberty  of  action;  and  it  fol- 
lows from  these  truths  that,  as  his  real  welfare  must 
depend  on  a  correct  understanding  of  his  essential  nature, 
their  denial  must  tend  to  his  permanent  injury  and  detri- 
ment. 

But  if  the  recognition  of  man's  independence  in  the 
mysterious  domain  of  Providence  is  of  the  highest  value  to 
progress,  it  is  scarcely  less  so  in  the  organization  and  prac- 
tical workings  of  Society.  What  is  formulated  by  sound 


END  OF  SOCIAL  CHAOS.  77 

philosophy  on  this  subject,  cannot  safely  be  ignored  in 
politics.  The  State  ought  not  by  its  legislation  or  its  various 
institutions  to  diminish,  much  less  destroy,  the  conscious- 
ness of  personal  freedom,  self-hood  and  responsibility. 
Wherever  this  blunder  has  been  committed  social  immo- 
bility  has  ensued,  and  wherever  it  has  been  avoided  or 
rectified,  this  fatal  torpor  has  been  happily  ended.  Of 
course  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  in  times  of  grossest 
tyranny  and  oppression  individuals  have  appeared  who  by 
explorations,  discoveries,  and  inventions,  have  imparted  an 
impuke  to  human  thought  and  activity.  As  on  the  birth 
of  the  universe  light  emerged  from  the  bosom  of  darkness, 
so  from  the  night  of  the  middle  ages  there  broke  forth 
lustrous  rays  which  have  contributed  to  the  splendor  of 
modern  civilization.  But  these  gifted  leaders  and  innova- 
tors were  notably  endowed  with  a  proud  sense  of  intellec- 
ual  independence.  They  were  enfranchised  in  themselves, 
and  unshackelecl  their  convictions  in  the  presence  of  iron- 
handed  potentates  and  iron-hearted  prelates.  And  if  some 
of  them,  like  the  aged  Galileo,  were  constrained  by  scien- 
tific jealousy  and  bigotry,  and  by  ecclesiastical  narrowness 
and  cruelty  to  recant,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  recant  their 
recantation,  and  to  whisper,  if  they  did  not  shout,  the 
truth  of  the  doctrine  for  which  they  suffered.  The 
example  of  these  men,  then,  does  not  in  the  least  militate 
against  our  position.  It  rather  confirms  the  view  advanced 
that  progress  is  facilitated  by  liberty  ;  for  if  these  isolated 
but  adventurous  spirits  were  inspired  to  undertake  great 
things  by  their  self-emancipation,  and  if  otherwise  they 
never  would  have  attempted  what  they  either  thought  or 
wrought,  it  stands  to  reason  that  a  community  of  even  in- 
ferior members  similarly  enlarged,  and  especially  if  un- 
trammeled  by  governmental  restrictions  and  dictations, 
can  hardly  fail  to  do  much  toward  its  own  improvement 
and  elevation.  Hence  it  is  that  history  chronicles  the 


78  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

achievement  of  nobler  deeds,  and  of  more  radical  and  more 
humanizing  changes  under  Republican  sway  than  under 
Monarchical  institutions,  unless,  as  in  England,  they  are  of 
an  exceedingly  liberal  character.  The  world  is  more  in- 
debted to  Athens,  with  its  constitution  originally  framed  by 
Solon  and  rendered  more  popular  by  Clisthenes,  and  with 
its  Pericles,  Socrates,  Phidias,  and  Demosthenes,  whose 
philosophy,  poetry,  art  and  eloquence  have  served  as  models 
for  all  succeeding  peoples  and  ages,  than  to  the  France  of 
Louis  XIV.  where  kingly  power  reigned  supreme  and  dis- 
played its  refinement  of  taste  and  elegance  of  culture ;  and 
the  names  of  Miltiades,  Themistocles  and  Leonidas,  with 
the  battle-grounds  of  Marathon.  Thermopylas,  and  Salamis 
are  entitled  to  greater  honor  than  the  Turennes,  Condes 
and  Vaubans,  or  the  bloody  fields  of  Zusmarshausen,  Lens, 
Blenheim  and  Malplaquet  where  they  defended  the  policy 
of  their  sovereign.  Mr.  Buckle  in  a  sentence  or  two 
characterizes  and  condemns  the  period  that  M.  Voltaire 
has  extolled,  and  which  has  been  called  the  "Augustine 
age."  He  says  that  even  its  literary  splendor  was 
the  work  of  the  great  generation  that  had  just  passed 
away,  that  discoveries  and  even  practical  ingenuity 
were  absent ;  and  finally,  that  the  age  was  an  age  of 
decay,  of  misery,  intolerance  and  oppression,  an  age  of 
bondage  and  ignominy.  In  contrast  with  Athens  how 
despicable  the  France  of  the  Grand  Monarque  appears ; 
and  in  contrast  with  the  England  and  Holland  of  the 
same  period,  countries  then  busy  with  scientific  investiga- 
tions and  with  the  dissemination  of  truth,  how  poor  and 
paltry  does  it  seem.  Shakspeare  says,  "  To  be  a  Roman 
once,  was  greater  than  to  be  a  king,"  but  that  was  when 
the  tribuneship,  quaestorship  and  consulate,  and  other 
important  offices,  were  open  to  the  plebians,  when  they 
could  intermarry  with  the  patricians,  and  attain  to  the 
priestly  dignities  of  Pontificate  and  Augurate.  The 


ROMAN   LIBEETY.  79 

elevation  of  the  people,  after  long  and  fierce  struggles, 
recognized  by  the  Ogulnian  law,  B.  C.  300,  and  promoted 
by  the  Hortensian  laws,  B.  C.  280,  was  the  forerunner 
of  many  victories  over  foreign  foes,  and  with  the  close 
of  the  Punic  wars  opened  to  the  Roman  Republic  its 
palmiest  days.  These  days  alas !  were  soon  to  fall 
into  "the  sere  and  yellow  leaf."  The  civil  conflict 
between  Marius  and  Sylla  diminished  the  privileges  of  the 
citizens ;  the  rise  of  the  Empire  left  them  only  the  merest 
fragments  of  political  power ;  and  when  that  power  became 
an  empty  name  the  Empire  itself  went  tottering  to  its 
doom.  "  0  Liberty,  once  sacred,  now  trampled  upon !" 
exclaimed  Cicero,  as  the  shadows,  prophetic  ef  evil,  gath- 
ered round  the  nation;  and  he  might  have  added,  "the 
ruthless  feet  that  tread  down  liberty  will  also  crush  the 
hopes  and  happiness  of  society."  One  sign  of  decay  under 
the  Empire,  observed  by  Lecky  and  made  prominent  by 
Spencer,  appeared  in  the  donations  of  corn,  oil,  and  even 
of  money  to  the  people  and  soldiery.  These  gifts  con- 
ferred by  those  who  were  in  office,  or  by  ambitious  men 
who  courted  popular  favor,  diminished  the  feeling  of  self- 
reliance  on  the  part  of  the  recipients,  and  prepared  them 
to  become  the  willing  slaves  of  rapacious  masters,  or  the 
tools  and  allies  of  aspiring  demagogues.  Thus  step  by 
step  the  masses  lost  the  sense  of  personal  dignity,  and  with 
their  degradation  and  practical  bondage  national  progress 
was  not  only  arrested,  but  came  to  an  abrupt  and  dis- 
astrous end. 

In  our  own  times  there  are  multiplied  proofs  that  the 
connection  between  the  reality  and  consciousness  of  free- 
dom and  of  social  advancement,  which  we  think  history 
affirms,  is  both  close  and  abiding.  Commerce  has  pros- 
pered and  developed  under  free  institutions;  and  where  it 
has  been  subject  to  fewest  governmental  interferences  it 
has  expanded  and  grown.  Religion,  in  proportion  as  it  has 


80  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

been  separated  from  the  State,  has  gained  in  strength, 
purity  and  usefulness.  Where  the  secular  powers  leave  it 
alone,  there  it  displays  the  greatest  spirituality,  benevo- 
lence and  enterprise.  Science  also  has  achieved  its  most 
notable  triumphs  where  the  rights  of  thought  and  inquiry 
are  most  fully  recognized  and  most  jealously  guarded. 
And  the  Press,  likewise,  has  attained  its  highest  degree  of 
intellectual  vigor,  and  fulfills  its  mission  in  the  worthiest 
manner,  though  not  without  deserved  blame,  where 
official  censorship  is  reduced  to  the  minimum,  and 
where  the  impertinent  surveillance  of  government  hire- 
lings is  abolished.  Even  in  the  direct  management 
of  telegraphs  and  railroads,  as  has  been  shown  by 
Sir  Thomas  Farrer,  the  public  is  better  served  than  by 
the  State  ;  and  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  has  taught  us  to 
doubt  the  efficacy  of  excessive  legislation.  Any  one  care- 
fully reading  his  Study  of  Sociology  must  come  to  the  con- 
clusion, that  is,  unless  he  is  determined  not  to  be  convinced 
by  facts  and  arguments,  that  those  nations  are  making  the 
longest  and  most  rapid  strides  toward  civilization  where 
there  is  least  interference  on  the  part  of  the  authorities 
with  the  independent  action  of  the  citizen.  More- 
over, in  our  opinion,  the  enthusiastic  devotion  of  human- 
ity to  liberty  in  all  ages  confirms  the  position  we  are 
defending.  From  time  immemorial  man  has  toiled  for 
it,  thought,  fought  and  died  for  it.  He  has  been 
stirred  to  the  very  depths  of  his  being  by  the  example  of 
heroes,  like  •Arnold  Winkelreid  of  TInderwalden ;  and  he 
has  treasured  as  sacred  such  sentiments  as  those  attributed 
to  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  who  is  reported  as  saying, 
"  I  am  held  to  be  the  contriver  of  conspiracies,  but  what 
greater  glory  can  ihere  be  than  to  maintain  the  liberty  of 
a  man's  country,  and  to  die  rather  than  be  enslaved?" 
Can  it  be  that  untold  sacrifices  have  been  offered  on  this 
altar,  and  that  substantial  blessings  were  not  expected  in 


PROSPERITY   AND   FREEDOM.  81 

return?  Was  it  a  name,  a  glittering  delusion,  a  radiant 
phantom  that  the  noblest  races  agonized  in  blood  to  grasp? 
Is  it  likely  that  a  mere  form  of  government,  for  its  own 
sake,  could  have  moved  them  to  endure  privations  and 
untold  sufferings?  No ;  common  sense,  the  common  sense 
of  the  battling  multitudes,  answers  "  No  "  !  They  bared 
their  breasts  to  the  spear,  and  exposed  their  neck  to  the 
block  for  that  which  they  believed  would  lighten  their  bur- 
dens, ameliorate  their  condition,  promote  their  prosperity, 
and  increase  their  happiness.  They  saw,  or  imagined  they 
saw,  that  emancipation  was  the  first  step  toward  the  prom- 
ised land  of  peace  and  plenty,  and  they  were  inspired  by 
the  fair  prospect  opening  before  them  and  the  unborn 
generations,  to  array  themselves  against  the  fortressed 
might  of  their  oppressors.  These  were  the  visions  which 
thrilled  and  exalted  the  leaders  of  the  French  Revolution, 
when  they  met  at  their  feasts  of  fraternity  and  equality, 
and  clasped  each  others  hands  and  embraced  in  the  streets 
of  Paris,  and  proclaimed  a  millennium  of  light  and  love,  of 
abundance  and  amity.  To  them,  as  to  the  men  of  Mor- 
garten,  Simpach,  Eunnymede,  Lutzen,  and  Bunker  Hill, 
freedom  meant  social  advancement ;  and,  unless  we  regard 
them  all  as  fanatical  dreamers,  we  too  must  hold  that  the 
connection  between  them  is  reasonable  and  indissoluble. 

But  if  we  hold  this  sincerely,  we  shall  regard  with  sus- 
picion, not  unmixed  with  apprehension,  the  plans  and 
theories  of  the  red  Socialists  and  Communists,  which  in  the 
name  of  liberty  threaten  to  swallow  up  the  independence  of 
the  individual.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  some  regula- 
tive enactments  are  needed  to  prevent  injustice  and  to 
restrain  privilege  from  abuse ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  interests  of  Society  demand  that  legislation  shall  not 
attempt  to  do  everything  for  the  citizen,  reducing  him  to  a 
nonentity  or  to  the  level  of  a  slave.  Yet  this  is  the  practi- 
cal and  logical  Ultima  Tlnde  of  the  systems  referred  to, 


82  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL   LIFE. 

and  which  are  clamoring  on  all  sides  for  recognition  and 
adoption.  That  we  are  not  miscalculating  the  real  out- 
come of  these  schemes  a  witness  as  reliable  as  Pierre  Joseph 
Proudhon  sufficiently  proves.  In  his  Memoirs  (see  Mr.  B. 
R.  Tucker's  translation,  p.  259),  we  read  : 

I  ought  not  to  conceal  the  fact  that  property  and  communism  have 
been  considered  always  the  only  possible  forms  of  Society.  This  de- 
plorable error  has  been  the  life  of  property.  The  disadvantages  of 
communism  are  so  obvious  that  its  critics  have  never  needed  to  employ 
much  eloquence  to  thoroughly  disgust  men  with  it.  The  irreparability 
of  the  injustice  which  it  causes,  the  violence  which  it  does  to  attrac- 
tions and  repulsions,  the  yoke  of  iron  which  it  fastens  on  the  will,  the 
moral  torture  to  which  it  subjects  the  conscience,  the  debilitating 
effect  which  it  has  upon  society,  and,  to  sum  it  all  up,  the  pious  and 
stupid  uniformity  which  it  enforces  upon  the  free,  active,  reasoning, 
unsubmissive  personality  of  man,  have  shocked  common  sense  and 
condemned  communism  by  an  irreversible  decree. 

What  is  this  but  slavery  ?  The  only  apparent  difference 
between  it  and  other  forms  of  slavery  is  the  substitution  of 
one  master  for  another,  the  State  taking  the  place  of  the 
Autocrat,  the  community  taking  the  place  of  old-time  indi- 
vidual proprietors.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  with  remorseless 
logic,  has  elaborated  this  view  in  his  masterly  brochure,  en- 
titled The  Man  Versus  the  State.  Having  shown  that  pri- 
vate voluntarily-formed  societies  involve  to  some  extent  a 
surrender  of  liberty,  and  have  given  rise  to  complaints 
about  "the  tyranny  of  organization,"  he  writes  : 

Judge  then  what  must  happen  when,  instead  of  relatively  small 
combinations,  to  which  men  may  belong  or  not  as  they  please,  we 
have  a  national  combination  in  which  each  citizen  finds  himself  incor- 
porated, and  from  which  he  cannot  separate  himself  without  leaving 
the  country.  Judge  what  must  under  such  conditions  become  the 
despotism  of  a  graduated  and  centralized  officialism,  holding  in  its 
hands  the  resources  of  the  community,  and  having  behind  it  whatever 
amount  of  force  it  finds  requisite  to  carry  out  its  decrees  and  maintain 
what  it  calls  order.  Well  may  Prince  Bismarck  display  leanings 
towards  State-Socialism.  *  *  The  final  result  would  be  a  revival  of 


BOUNDARIES   OF   LEGISLATION.  83 

despotism.  *  *  And  if  there  needs  proof  that  the  periodic  exercise  of 
electoral  power  would  fail  to  prevent  this,  it  suffices  to  instance  the 
French  Government,  which,  purely  popular  in  origin,  and  subject  at 
short  intervals  to  popular  judgment,  nevertheless  tramples  on  the  free- 
dom of  citizens  to  an  extent  which  the  English  delegates  to  the  late 
Trades  Unions  Congress  say  '  is  a  disgrace  to,  and  an  anomaly  in,  a 
Republican  nation.' 

The  practical  working,  then,  of  such  a  scheme  would, 
in  the  long  run,  fatally  curtail  the  liberty  of  the  citizen, 
and,  if  we  may  believe  history,  would  end  in  social  paraly- 
sis. In  effect  it  would  prove  as  rigid  and  as  unyielding  as 
Feudalism,  and  would  be  as  jealous  of  innovations.  On 
this  ground  we  resent  its  advances.  It  means  retrogres- 
sion, declension,  blight  and  mildew;  the  evening  and  night 
of  civilization,  not  its  morning.  But  in  resisting  this 
political  delusion  we  must  be  careful  that  we  do  not 
unthoughtedly  and  involuntarily  contribute  to  its  triumph 
by  unwise  and  unbalanced  legislation.  There  may  be  too 
many  laws  for  the  good  of  the  community,  as  there  may 
be  too  few,  and  the  quality  even  may  be  more  pernicious 
than  the  quantity.  To  erect  barriers  in  the  way  of  greed, 
to  fix  limitations  to  acquisition,  to  check  lawless  and  selfish 
egoism,  to  prevent  cruel  indifference  to  the  welfare  of  the 
laboring  classes,  to  protect  the  weak  and  helpless  against 
the  strong,  to  compel  the  proper  discharge  of  reciprocal 
duties,  to  repel  the  inroads  of  vice,  crime  and  pauperism, 
and,  in  a  word,  to  secure  the  best  interests  and  happiness 
of  the  entire  body  politic,  undoubtedly  comes  within  the 
province  of  wholesome  government;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
the  discharge  of  these  functions  has  boundaries  which 
cannot  be  passed  without  approximating  to  the  underlying 
and  enslaving  principle  of  Communism.  These  boundaries 
are  determined  by  the  sovereignty  of  freedom.  Legislation 
that  necessarily  tends  to  diminish  the  just  sense  of  personal 
independence,  that  trammels  the  exercise  of  legitimate 
activities,  that  lessens  the  reality  of  individual  responsi- 


84  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

bility,  and  that  hinders  the  free  play  of  all  human  faculties 
or  the  full  development  of  all  human  resources,  is  but 
another  scheme  of  the  Communistic  type,  a  subtle  and 
cunning  device  inducing  bondage  and  arresting  progress. 
Such  legislation  the  friends  of  social  advancement  are 
bound  to  discourage,  and  must  seek  by  less  questionable 
methods  the  fruition  and  consummation  of  their  hopes. 
Among  other  wholesome  means  which  have  wrought 
advantageously  in  the  past,  and  which  are  important  still, 
the  earnest  student  will  discern  as  prominent  the  growth 
of  popular  intelligence.  In  one  sense  this  is  a  part  of 
progress  itself;  but  in  another,  it  is  a  cause.  Every  step 
onward,  whether  in  the  domain  of  physics  or  of  morals, 
has  been  preceded  by  a  degree  of  intelligence,  and  has  been 
succeeded  by  a  higher  degree,  which  has  contributed  in 
its  turn  to  a  yet  higher  stage,  and  has  itself  become 
inwrought  with  the  general  results  attained.  Thus  it  is 
both  a  cause  and  a  sequence,  a  beginning  and  an  ending. 
The  animal  kingdom  is  practically  stationary.  Beavers 
and  bees  build  now  as  in  former  times;  and  the  savage 
eagle  constructs  his  rude  inaccessible  eyrie  as  uncouthly  as 
of  old,  taking  no  lessons  in  delicate  architecture  or  in  per- 
sonal comfort  from  the  curious  and  luxurious  nests  of  more 
refined  and  dainty  birds.  They  are  all  creatures  of 
instinct,  and,  consequently,  they  can  only  repeat  them- 
selves; they  do  not  acquire,  and  hence  they  never  improve 
themselves  or  their  surroundings.  It  is  different  with 
man.  He  is  ever  learning,  ever  applying  knowledge,  and 
and  so  is  ever  re-forming,  altering,  inventing,  changing, 
and  moving  onward.  Dr.  John  Trusler  (Synonymes  1735 — 
1820)  draws  a  distinction  which  is  of  value  in  this  connec- 
tion. He  says:  "Intellect,  or  understanding  power,  is  a 
gift  of  nature;  and  intelligence,  or  understanding  habit,  an 
accumulation  of  time.  So  discriminated,  intellect  is  in- 
spired, intelligence  is  acquired."  Crabb,  also  on  this  sub- 


ORIGIN   OF   INVENTION'S.  85 

ject,  writes:  "Intellect  and  intelligence. axe  derived  from 
the  same  word;  but  intellect  describes  the  power  itself,  and 
intelligence  the  exercise  of  that  power.  Hence  it  arises 
that  the  word  intelligence  has  been  employed  in  the  sense 
of  knowledge  or  information,  because  these  are  the  express 
fruits  of  intelligence."  Intellect,  then,  is  capacity,  hence 
capacity  for  progress;  and  intelligence,  the  mind  acting 
and  adding  to  its  riches,  is  the  instrument  by  which  prog- 
ress is  brought  about.  Now,  it  stands  to  reason,  the  more 
general  the  ability  to  employ  .this  instrument,  other 
things  being  equal,  the  greater  the  likelihood  of  social 
advancement.  When  the  people  are  intent  on  acquiring 
knowledge,  when  they  study  themselves  and  their  environ- 
ments, when  they  are  measurably  enlightened  and  curious, 
and  especially  when  they  are  free  to  think  for  themselves, 
they  are  sure  to  be  restless,  fertile  in  suggestions,  and 
ready  for  radical  changes.  Indeed,  a  careful  induction  of 
facts,  we  think,  will  show  that  they  themselves  have  pro- 
duced more  such  changes  than  the  learned  few  whose 
exalted  position  of  privilege  would  seem  to  warrant  the 
highest  expectations.  Understand,  we  do  not  mean  to 
assert  that  some  great  scholars  have  not  also  been  great 
discoverers  or  inventors;  but  we  maintain  that  the  largest 
number  of  useful  and  beneficent  contrivances  and  appli- 
ances are  traceable  to  the  practical  sagacity  and  common- 
sense  of  those  who  did  not  rank  high  in  the  Republic 
of  Letters.  According  to  Bacon,  the  origin  of  gunpowder, 
the  mariner's  compass  and  the  printing  press,  which 
revolutionized  warfare,  navigation  and  literature,  '•  is 
obscure  and  inglorious."  The  first  of  these  inventions  is 
sometimes  ascribed  to  Friar  Bacon,  or  to  the  monk  Ber- 
thold  Schwarz,  but  without  sufficient  evidence.  What 
Archimedes  was  far  from  guessing,  and  consequently  could 
not  employ  against  Marcellus,  that  sulphur,  saltpetre  and 
charcoal,  triturated  and  mixed  together,  would  blow  au 


86  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

advancing  enemy  off  the  earth,  was  reserved  for  some 
observing,  earnest,  nameless  genius  to  find  out.  To  the 
ingenuity  and  skill  of  mechanics  the  world  is  certainly 
indebted  for  tbe  printing  press.  And  as  to  the  compass, 
110  Eratosthenes  determining  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic, 
and  virtually  deciding  the  circumference  of  the  globe,  and 
no  Hipparchus  studying  equinoxes  and  calculating  lunar 
and  solar  tables,  ever  imagined  such  a  guiding  and  guard- 
ing instrument;  but  the  idea  seems  rather  to  have  been 
stumbled  on  by  some  hard-headed,  far-seeing  Chinese  sol- 
dier or  Emperor — Ho-ang-ti,  we  believe — who  lived  about 
2034  B.  C.,  and  through  the  Arabs  to  have  worked  its  way 
into  Europe,  where,  of  course,  it  has  been  wonderfully 
improved  on.  But  so  little  is  known  of  the  beginning  of 
its  history  that  it  is  unsafe  to  advance  any  theory  on  the 
subject,  beyond  the  purely  negative  one  that  it  was  not 
the  product  of  genuine  and  varied  scholarship.  The  same 
thing  may  be  said  regarding  some  of  the  most  important 
remedies  in  the  Pharmacopoeia;  and  an  English  writer  of 
acknowledged  repute  declares  that  most  of  the  chemical 
discoveries  which  have  benefited  the  arts  are  due  to  the 
manipulations  of  skilful  operatives,  rather  than  to  what  is 
called  chemical  or  scientific  philosophy.  The  spinning- 
jenny  was  thought  out  and  constructed  by  a  shrewd  artisan, 
assisted  by  a  plain  laboring  man  and  an  energetic  barber's 
apprentice.  Such  names  as  those  of  the  miner  Savery,  the 
glazier  Cawley,  the  instrument-maker  Watts,  and  the  col- 
liery fireman  and  plugman  George  Stephenson,  are  renowned 
for  their  connection  with  the  application  of  steam  to  loco- 
motion; and  these  men,  as  may  be  inferred  from  their 
callings,  were  as  far  from  being  scholars  as  were  the  unfortu- 
nate Fitch  and  the  persistent  Fulton  who  led  in  the  appli- 
cation of  the  same  motor  to  navigation;  or  the  wretched, 
though  evidently  intelligent,  fellow  who  anticipated  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy  in  the  fashioning  of  a  safety  lamp. 


THE    POOR   MAN'S   COLLEGE.  87 

John  Henry  Newman,  not  only  reminds  his  readers  that 
the  world's  greatest  benefactors  are  unknown,  but  thought- 
fully adds: 

It  is  notorious  that  those  who  first  suggest  the  most  happy  inven- 
tions, and  open  a  way  to  the  secret  stores  of  nature;  those  who  weary 
themselves  in  the  search  after  truth;  strike  out  momentous  principles 
of  action;  painfully  force  upon  their  contemporaries  the  adoption  of 
beneficial  measures;  or,  again,  are  the  original  cause  of  the  chief 
events  in  national  history,  are  commonly  supplanted,  as  regards  cele- 
brity and  reward,  by  inferior  men. 

But  when  they  are  known,  as  a  rule  they  will  not  be 
found  preparing  for  their  special  work  in  scientific  acad- 
emies, laboratories,  and  secluded  libraries.  No;  they  will 
generally  be  discovered  where  Arkwright,  Howe,  McCor- 
mick,  Edison  and  Goodyear  were  trained,  at  the  black- 
smith's forge,  or  in  carpenter  shops,  cotton  mills  and  in  all 
kinds  of  manufacturing  establishments.  These  have  been 
their  principal  schools,  as  the  quarry  was  the  university 
where  Hugh  Miller  studied.  Nevertheless,  as  we  have 
stated  before,  these  men  were  not  ignorant,  stupid  and  un- 
reflecting. Far  from  it.  In  some  way  they  acquired  the 
rudiments  of  education,  were  attentive  readers,  and  went 
through  the  world  with  their  eyes  open.  They  were  essen- 
tially intelligent  men,  and  illustrate  in  their  lives  the  value 
of  popular  intelligence  to  Society.  But  we  shall  miss  the 
real  significance  and  force  of  their  example  if,  for  a  mo- 
ment, we  regard  it  as  reflecting  on  the  work  of  ripe  schol- 
arship, or  imagine  that  it  discredits  higher  institutions  of 
learning.  They  rather  supplement  each  other;  they  do  not 
necessarily  antagonize.  We  should  never  forget  that  these 
higher  schools  exert  a  mind-quickening  influence  on  mul- 
titudes who  never  enter  their  halls,  that  they  create  a  cer- 
tain atmosphere  of  intelligence,  and  that  they  slowly 
accumulate  facts,  which  gradually  drift  downward  to  the 
people,  and  by  them  are  rendered  applicable  to  the  varying 


88  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

needs  of  diverse  cummunities.  The  white  peaks  of  Switz- 
erland are  not  without  blessing  to  the  fertile  plains  and 
fields  of  Europe.  Those  solitary  heights  gather  to  them- 
selves the  snows  of  heaven,  and  seem  to  wrap  themselves 
in  frigid  and  pallid  selfishness.  Yet,  but  for  them  the  riv- 
ers would  run  dry,  and  smiling  valleys  would  turn  to  barren 
deserts.  So  scholars  and  scholastic  retreats,  apparently  far  re- 
moved from  popular  sympathies,  and  to  the  popular  appre- 
hension cold  and  glacial  in  their  splendor,  are  continually 
collecting  the  materials  which  supply  practical  sagacity  with 
hint  and  inspiration.  Level  the  hills  and  the  vales  would  be 
beggared;  blot  out  college  and  university  and  intelligence 
would  decline,  and  would  ultimately  be  lost  in  ignorance. 
We  cannot  dispense  with  them,  nor  dare  we  encourage  dis- 
paraging estimates  of  their  value.  Such  has  not  been  our 
design  in  what  we  have  written.  Our  purpose  has  simply 
been  to  promote  the  latter,  but  not  at  the  expense  of  the 
former.  We  have  seen  how  it  has  contributed  to  social  de- 
velopment, and  the  lesson  from  the  argument  is  unobscure 
and  unmistakable.  It  may  be  formulated  in  a  word  of  ad- 
vise to  the  struggling  masses — get  intelligence.  Read,  ac- 
cumulate information,  discipline  the  mind,  look  into 
things,  observe,  reflect.  M.  Bailly  of  Switzerland  in  a  re- 
port on  the  competition  of  American  skilled  labor  with 
that  of  his  own  country,  attributes  the  higher  character  of 
the  former  "to  the  personal  superiority  of  the  American 
workman/'  He  notices  how  much  is  made  of  a  man  in  this 
land  of  ours.  One  man,  he  says,  runs  a  railway  train  in 
the  United  States  that  would  require  six  in  Europe;  and 
he  adds  that  our  people  put  more  thought  into  their  work 
than  is  common  in  the  old  world,  and  consequently  that  it 
is  generally  unequaled  in  quality.  If  our  artisans  would 
still  keep  the  lead,  let  them,  then,  pay  heed  to  this  wit- 
ness from  across  the  sea,  and  get  intelligence.  Intelligence 
will  not  only  enable  them  to  preserve  the  high  character 


PROGRESS    AND    INDUSTRY.  89 

and  reputation  of  their  skill,  and  qualify  them  to  improve 
on  the  improvement  of  ages  and  to  supplement  inventions 
with  new  ones,  but  it  will  also  fit  them  for  the  conflicts  of 
the  hour  which  they  cannot  without  loss  and  discredit  avoid. 
Brain  is  more  important  than  brawn  in  deciding  the  issues 
which  now  divide  class  from  class;  and  if  ever  existing 
wrongs  shall  be  righted,  and  prevailing  evils  be  abated, 
mind,  not  muscle,  must  be  our  chief  reliance.  Employers 
will  find  it  very  difficult  to  defraud  thoughtful  and  well-in- 
formed employe*;  capital  will  be  unable  to  deceive  them 
with  its  illusive  theories  of  political  economy;  politicians 
will  no  longer  succeed  in  cheating  them  in  the  interests  of 
their  own  ambition;  and  they  themselves  will  form  sounder, 
juster,  more  conservative  and  more  discriminating  views 
than  are  at  present  common  among  them  regarding  the 
causes  and  the  cure  of  reigning  inequalities  and  wretched- 
ness. 

Perhaps  progress  is  indebted  as  much  to  the  elevation 
of  industry  as  to  the  growth  of  intelligence;  but  whether 
this  is  so  or  not,  unquestionably  the  recognition  of  its  real 
dignity  and  worth  has  exerted  an  immense  influence  on 
the  fortunes  of  mankind.  The  labor  that  upturns  rocks, 
digs  foundations,  disinters  metals,  shapes  weapons  for  war 
and  tools  for  peace,  reclaims  deserts,  constructs  buildings, 
lays  interminable  roads  of  iron,  spins  incalculable  lengths 
of  wire,  and  that  cultivates,  fabricates,  shapes,  molds, 
weaves,  carves,  chisels,  delves,  ploughs,  sows,  reaps,  and-,  in 
a  word,  carries  forward  the  material  work  of  civilization,  is 
held  today  in  greater  esteem  and  honor  than  ever  in  the 
past.  We  do  not  claim  that  it  is  even  now  appreciated  as 
it  should  be,  that  its  value  is  adequately  estimated  or  its 
achievements  sufficiently  rewarded.  It  suffers  still  from 
the  prejudices  of  the  so-called  upper  classes,  and  from  the 
rapacious  greed  of  those  who  see  in  it  only  a  means  to  per- 
sonal affluence.  Nay  it  frequently  degrades  itself  by  wild 


90  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

theories  of  heated  and  extravagant  demagogues,  which  it 
adopts  as  a  new  gospel  fuller  of  hope  than  the  promises  of 
the  old.  Silly  people  still  blush  to  be  reminded  of  ancestors 
who  toiled  for  a  living;  and  count  it  as  more  discreditable 
to  have  "butcher,  baker,  or  candle-stick  maker,"  or  some 
milliner,  or  dress-maker  figuring  in  their  pedigree  than 
some  ruffian  robber-baron,  or  some  frail  mistress  of  royalty. 
"  Gone  into  trade,"  was  the  awful  crime  recorded  of  one 
of  Thackeray's  characters;  and  not  in  fiction  only,  but  in 
real  life,  persons  whose  fortunes  have  changed  and  who,  in 
consequence,  have  been  obliged  to  engage  in  manual  toil, 
have  found  the  drawing  rooms  of  their  former  associates 
closed  against  them.  But  these  senseless  and  sickening 
prejudices,  relics  of  a  period  when  governing,  fighting,  and 
praying  were  about  the  only  respectable  things  in  the  world, 
and  the  wrongs  which  are  still  inflicted  through  injustice 
or  ignorance,  or  both  combined,  do  not  compare  with  the 
stupid,  supercilious  scorn  and  the  barbarous,  fiendish  out- 
rages that  were  visited  on  industry  and  cursed  it  in  former 
ages.  We  have  already  seen  how  legislation  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.  pressed  hard  on  labor,  and  how  the  old  laws 
of  England  tended  rather  to  depress,  debase,  and  enslave, 
than  to  encourage  quicken  and  enlarge  its  interests.  Other 
countries  in  Europe  imitated  this  iniquitous  and  foolish 
policy;  and  it  is  only  recently  both  in  France  and  Germany 
that  statutes  prohibiting  combinations  and  unions  among 
•workmen  have  been  finally  repealed.  Anyone  who  de- 
sires to  see  how  wretched  and  hopeless  their  condition  was 
has  only  to  read  some  history  of  the  BauernJcriegs  in  Teuton 
lands  and  of  their  associates  of  other  nationalities.  We  are 
aware  of  what  has  been  written  by  Thornton,  Wright, 
Hallam  and  others  in  the  vain  attempt  to  show  that  their 
condition  was  superior  immediately  following  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kingdom  to  what  it  is  now:  we 
say  vain;  for  the  upshot  of  all  they  state  is  expressed  in  the 


EXALTATION    OF    LABOR.  91 

words  of  Mr.  Thornton:  "  Although  ruder  means  were 
employed  to  supply  the  wants  of  nature,  every  want  was 
abundantly  satisfied,  which  is  far  from  being  the  case  at 
present " — and  this  much  can  be  affirmed  with  equal  truth 
of  slavery  when  it  existed  in  the  Southern  States;  but  it  is 
questionable  whether  the  working  classes  would  regard 
themselves  or  the  cause  of  industry  as  being  particularly 
improved  or  benefited  by  a  return  to  a  slave  system  more 
or  less  humanized.  We  are  not  arguing  that  the  con- 
dition of  our  artisans  and  laborers  is  what  it  should  be,  and 
that  in  the  changed  circumstances  of  the  times,  they  do 
not  frequently  find  it  difficult  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the 
door;  but  we  are  contending  that  the  cause  which  they 
represent  was  never  more  honored,  more  potent,  and  even 
more  praised  and  courted  than  it  is  in  this  latter  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Governments  are  studying  the 
problems  which  it  presents;  philanthropists  are  seeking  to 
lighten  its  burdens;  statesmen  are  anxious  for  its  alliance 
and  support;  poets  are  extolling  its  heroes,  and  are  eulo- 
gizing its  conquests;  and,  above  all  the  voices  busy  with  its 
affairs,  its  own  voice  sounds  loudly,  pleadingly,  sometimes 
commandingly,  assured  by  a  multitude  of  indications  that 
the  world  must  hear.  It  has  come  to  be  recognized 
that  Society  rests  to  a  great  extent  on  industry,  that  kings 
cannot  despise  it  nor  republics  get  along  without  it; 
and  its  importance  in  modern  civilization  seems  to  surpass 
every  other  human  aim  and  pursuit.  That  extraordinary 
and  virulent  evils  should  beset  its  position,  however,  de- 
plorable, is  not  unnatural, — these  were  to  be  expected; — 
but  they  no  more  disprove  the  genuineness  of  its  high  rank 
in  the  estimation  of  the  age,  than  the  evils  which  have 
developed  with  modern  liberty  prove  that  it  is  inferior  to 
the  liberty  of  the  ancients.  Formerly  the  artisan  forged 
the  iron  for  the  baron's  shield,  tempered  the  steel  for 
his  sword,  fashioned  his  coat  of  mail,  reared  him  bastions, 


9^  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

dungeons,  and  frowning  keeps;  and  as  frequently  was  slain 
by  the  weapons  he  had  made  and  sighed  his  life  out  in  the 
prisons  he  had  built.  But  it  was  impossible  that  he  should 
continue  forever  a  stranger  to  the  power  he  possessed,  and 
which  was  so  monstrously  perverted  by  his  feudal  chiefs. 
He  gradually  came  to  realize  that  everything  depended  on 
himself,  that  nature  only  furnished  the  raw  material  and 
that  his  hand  gave  it  form  and  usefulness;  that  Society 
must  perish  without  him,  and  that,  therefore,  he  was  of 
more  worth  than  an  absolute  monarchy  would  allow,  or  an 
idle  aristocracy  admit.  From  the  moment  such  a  thought 
was  thought  industry  was  exalted.  The  struggle  was 
inevitable:  the  thought  must  grow — did  grow,  until  poten- 
tates and  soldiers,  philosophers  and  poets,  and  indeed 
enlightened  and  far-seeing  men  everywhere,  came  to 
acknowledge  that  she  who  had  been  treated  as  a  serf  was 
in  reality  a  queen.  That  wealth  should  at  times  grow 
jealous  of  her  power,  seek  to  curb  and  restrain  her 
energies,  challenge  some  of  the  claims  she  puts  forth,  and 
in  the  rivalry  surround  her  way  with  woeful  spectacles 
of  want  and  pain,  is  not  strange,  considering,  of  what  moral 
texture  humanity  is  composed;  but  it  is  no  more  a  sign  of 
new  degradation,  or  of  the  revival  of  the  old,  than  the 
cross  of  Christ  is  evidence  of  personal  weakness  or  dis- 
honor. 

Here  we  have  progress ;  and  in  addition,  a  fruitful 
source  of  progress.  To  the  changed  and  truer  estimate  of 
industry  must  be  attributed  the  attainment  in  some 
degree  at  least,  if  not  the  origin,  of  several  social  improve- 
ments and  advantages.  It  has  had  much  to  do  with  that 
marvelous  multiplication  of  new  cities  and  enlargement  of 
old  ones,  which  not  a  few  poetic  sentimentalists  among  us 
deplore;  but  which,  notwithstanding  the  evils  that  thus 
far  seem  inseparable  from  them,  have  contributed  to  the 
vigorous  growth  of  the  arts  of  peace,  and  to  the  spread  of 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  CAPITAL.  93 

benign  and  humanizing  principles.  Even  the  cities  of 
antiquity  were  renowned  as  the  leaders  of  civilization,  and 
to  their  influence  the  ancient  world  owed  pretty  much 
everything  of  value  it  possessed.  Behind  their  walls  liberty 
acquired  its  greatest  strength,  and  in  their  streets  letters 
and  philosophy  found  their  warmest  friends.  And  mod- 
ern cities  assuredly  equal,  if  they  do  not  surpass  them  in 
all  that  promotes  the  intelligence,  the  ingenuity,  the 
energy,  and  the  refinement  of  mankind.  That  the  wealth, 
splendor,  and  material  magnificence  of  thronged  metropolis 
and  populous  town  may  be  traced  to  the  new  era  in  the 
history  of  industry  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  many  of 
these  busy  places  are  built  on  manufactories  varied  and  ex- 
tensive, while  others  rest,  if  not  exclusively,  yet  mainly 
on  the  commerce  which  the  products  of  labor,  skilled  and 
otherwise,  render  possible  and  needful.  To  this  same  cause 
must  also  be  ascribed  the  astounding  increase  in  capital, 
however  that  expressive  term  may  be  defined,  which  is  one 
of  the  marked  features  of  our  age,  and  which  in  its  turn 
when  its  obligations  shall  be  understood  and  its  employ- 
ment be  wisely  and  justly  regulated,  shall  hasten  the 
dawning  of  the  better  day.  At  present  it  is  as  the  accu- 
mulated earnings  of  an  ignorant,  selfish  man,  which  he 
knows  not  how  to  use,  and  which  he  is  as  likely  to  invest 
stupidly  or  wickedly  as  he  is  to  invest  them  judiciously  or 
righteously.  The  laws  which  govern  capital,  or  should 
govern  it,  in  the  interests  of  Society,  at  the  best  are  only 
dimly  discerned,  and  the  mind  which  controls  it  is  not 
uninfluenced  by  sordidness;  and  hence  it  blunders  fear- 
fully and  sins  repeatedly;  but,  nevertheless,  it  has  at  its 
heart  "the  promise  and  potency"  of  nobler  things,  and  in 
the  coming  time  clearer  heads  and  cleaner  souls  will  know 
how  to  render  it  tributary  to  the  general  weal,  and  will 
joyfully  put  in  practise  what  they  know.  In  the  mean- 
while let  us  gratefully  remember  the  important  part  which 


94  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

industry  has  played  in  the  creation  of  this  same  capital, 
a  part  which  it  did  not  and  could  not  perform,  as  long  as 
it  was  regarded  as  ignoble  and  was  held  in  undeserved 
contempt ;  and  let  us  cherish  the  hope  that  soon,  very  soon, 
Enlightenment  sustained  by  Integrity  will  come  our  way, 
and  will  jointly  solve  the  problems  which  now  perplex  us 
by  their  darkness  and  distress  us  by  their  sadness. 

But  in  addition  to  these  eminent  services,  industry,  since 
its  advent  to  power,  and  even  from  the  hour  when  its  impor- 
tance was  first  forced  on  the  attention  of  the  modern  world, 
has  done  much,  indirectly  if  not  directly,  toward  the  recogni- 
tion of  man's  equality  before  the  law.  This  doctrine  is  one 
of  the  most  beneficent  in  the  political  creeds  of  our  times. 
As  a  sentiment  it  flashed  upon  the  world  in  remote  an- 
tiquity. As  Sumner  has  shown,  Herodotus  (Book  iii,  §  80) 
touched  on  it  in  a  single  word  ;  Demosthenes  in  his  oration 
against  Aristogiton  alluded  to  it ;  Seneca  (Epist.  xxx)  de- 
clared that  the  chief  part  of  equity  is  equality,  and,  nearer 
to  our  own  day,  Milton,  in  poetic  melody,  sang  of  its  blessed 
sway,  and  saw  "  With  fair  equality  fraternal  state.''  Christ 
prepared  the  way  for  the  reception  of  this  idea.  It  logically 
follows  the  solemn  truths  He  enunciated.  He  taught  that 
God  is  our  common  Father,  sends  rain  and  sunshine  on  all 
alike,  opens  Heaven's  doors  to  all  who  desire  to  enter,  and 
at  last  shall  summon  to  His  judgment-seat  potentate  and 
peasant,  pope  and  priest,  preacher  and  people.  Surely, 
then,  if  there  is  no  respect  of  persons  before  His  throne, 
neither  should  there  be  before  the  tribunals  of  earth.  The- 
natural  outcome  of  these  radical  views  may  be  read  in  the 
mighty  principle,  almost  axiomatic  in  America,  "that  all 
men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these 
are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  What  is 
thus  expressed  has  been  measurably  realized  in  politics, 
though  not  to  the  same  extent  in  social  conditions ;  for,  as 


EQUALITY.  95 

we  shall  see  farther  on,  social  inequalities  have  not  yet  been 
conquered  even  as  far  as  they  are  conquerable.  France  fol- 
lowed America,  and  in  the  Constitution  of  June,  1795,  put 
an  end  to  privilege,  and  decreed  that  its  citizens  should  be 
on  the  same  level  before  the  law.  The  charter  of  Louis 
Philippe,  modifying  what  had  been  enacted  before,  yet  dis- 
tinctly declares:  "Frenchmen  are  equal  before  the  law, 
whatever  may  be  their  titles  and  ranks. "  In  other  conti- 
nental nations  and  in  England  equality  is  either  authorita- 
tively affirmed  or  allowed,  jurisprudence,  theoretically  at 
least,  proceeding  on  the  assumption  of  its  truth.  But  what 
has  industry  had  to  do  with  this,  and  in  what  way  has  its 
emancipation  from  contumely  advanced  the  triumph,  as  far 
as  it  has  triumphed,  of  this  principle  ?  Were  not  Diderot, 
D'Alembert,  and  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  the  men  who  were 
foremost  during  the  eighteenth  century  in  calling  public 
attention  to  its  reasonableness  ?  These  questions  will  nat- 
urally arise  in  the  mind  of  the  reader ;  and  he  will  very 
likely  also  say  to  himself,  "  These  men  were  not  artisans  and 
mechanics,  but  were  only  philosophers."  True;  and  yet 
the  connection  concerning  which  these  questions  are  asked, 
though  not  at  first  apparent,  is  very  close  and  vital.  •  These 
philosophers  to  a  great  extent  were  men  of  the  people,  and 
the  vicissitudes  of  their  early  life  made  them  familiar  with 
the  deplorable  condition  of  the  laboring  classes.  Rousseau, 
the  son  of  a  watchmaker  of  Geneva,  and  himself  once  a 
servant  in  a  rich  lady's  household,  and  always  poor,  could 
advantageously  study  the  pernicious  results  of  inequality 
before  the  law.  Diderot,  though  of  respectable  birth,  was 
a  good  deal,  of  a  Bohemian,  wandering  about  Paris  as  a 
bookseller's  hack ;  and  D'Alembert,  the  illegitimate  off- 
spring of  the  Chevalier  Destouches,  brought  up  as  a  found- 
ling by  the  wife  of  a  glazier,  had  abundant  opportunity  of 
knowing  the  ill  effects  of  irresponsible  power,  and  the  dis- 
couraging and  degrading  influence  of  injustice  on  honest 


96  STUDIES  Itf  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

toil.  They  were  all  reared  in  what  may  appropriately  be 
called  the  shadows  of  industry,  and  were  made  to  realize 
that  the  Lettre  de  cachet,  so  freely  employed  by  the  king 
and  his  favorites,  was  an  instrument  of  tyranny  fatal  to  the 
material  prosperity  of  France.  How  far  they  were  con- 
sciously moved  by  the  wretchedness  of  the  Tiers  etat,  and 
by  the  contempt  in  which  its  pursuits  were  held,  we  can 
only  guess ;  but  their  writings  warrant  the  opinion  that 
they  were  not  unaffected  by  what  they  had  seen  and  heard 
of  these  things  when  they  enunciated  a  principle  which  un- 
dermined the  stability  of  the  Ancien  Regime.  They  saw 
that  the  old  order  must  give  place  to  the  new,  that  Society 
must  be  reconstructed  or  fall  to  pieces  through  sheer  rot- 
tenness, and  that  to  afford  France  the  benefit  of  all  her 
resources,  and  to  quicken  the  energies  of  her  thinkers  and 
toilers  in  her  behalf,  equality  before  the  law  must  be  ac- 
knowledged and  applied.  We  merely  claim  for  industry 
that  its  low  estate  in  their  day,  its  wrongs  and  woes,  ren- 
dered more  vivid  by  impending  national  bankruptcy,  helped 
to  open  the  eyes  and  to  stir  the  hearts  of  these  brilliant 
writers,  and  suggested  to  them  the  remedy. 

But  this  was  in  the  period  of  its  shame,  or,  at  best 
of  its  struggling  infancy.  Since  its  growth  in  strength 
and  honor,  the  services  it  has  rendered  the  cause  of 
human  equality  are  more  readily  recognized.  It  has 
gone  far  toward  establishing  the  right  of  all  people  to  im- 
partial consideration  before  the  tribunals  of  justice;  for  it 
has  shown  that  mechanics  and  laborers  are  as  valuable  to 
the  State  as  merchants  or  soldiers,  and  are  hence  as  much 
entitled  to  its  protection  and  care.  At  the  plow,  the  forge, 
the  airvil,  and  the  loom  it  has  developed  remarkable  men, 
heroes,  and  benefactors,  the  peers  of  any  who  have  been 
fostered  by  schools  of  learning  or  by  the  favor  of  kings; 
and  thus  having  demonstrated  that  "honor  and  fame  from  no 
condition  rise,"  and  that  humanity  may  be  as  great  in 


TRIUMPHS   OF   INDUSTRY.  97 

one  set  of  circumstances  as  another,  it  has  deepened  the 
conviction  everywhere  that  discriminations  on  the  part  of 
governments  against  labor  and  the  laboring  classes  are 
iniquitous  and  insane.  Adam  Smith  in  The  Wealth  of 
Nations  seems  to  argue  that  industry  is  the  real  source  of 
national  prosperity,  and  consequently  insists  that  it  should 
be  freed  from  former  shackles.  Experience  has  substan- 
tiated his  estimate  and  his  theory.  In  proportion  as 
industry  has  been  emancipated  from  old-time  disabilities 
has  Society  progressed;  and  as  one  of  its  most  depressing 
burdens  was  lifted  when  equality  before  the  law  was 
ordained,  by  an  easy  process  of  logic  the  public  mind  has 
reached  the  unalterable  conclusion  that  this  equality  is  as 
necessary  as  it  is  righteous.  Thus,  then,  has  this  funda- 
mental principle  been  verified,  commended,  illustrated, 
and,  as  it  were,  illuminated  and  exalted,  by  the  recent  his- 
tory of  toil  in  its  several  departments;  and  thus  have  men 
been  brought  to  realize  more  fully  than  in  the  past  the 
injustice  of  caste  and  the  indispensableness  of  brotherhood. 
Nor  is  this  all  that  the  world  owes  to  the  influence  of 
the  agency  whose  mission  we  extol.  According  to  Hume, 
it  has  cultivated  enterprise  and  caution;  according  to 
Buckle,  it  has  diminished  superstition,  as  it  has  rendered 
us  conscious  of  our  own  ability  and  responsibility;  and 
according  to  Lecky  it  has  undermined  asceticism,  checked 
ecclesiastical  pretensions,  and  moderated  the  intolerance  of 
conflicting  creeds,  as  it  has  placed  comforts  within  the 
reach  of  multitudes,  has  shown  the  superiority  of  its  own 
power  in  comparison  with  the  theatrical  thunders  of  a 
Paganized  Papalism,  and  has  demonstrated  that  deeds  arc 
worth  more  than  theories  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life. 
And  if  in  these  various  ways  it  has  served  Society,  we 
cannot  afford  to  be  indifferent  to  its  legitimate  claims. 
What  it  has  done  is  pledge  of  what  it  is  capable  of  doing 
in  the  future.  We  are  bound,  therefore,  to  maintain  its 


98  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

essential  dignity,  to  abate  the  evils  which  impair  its  effi- 
ciency, to  see  that  it  has  fair  play  in  its  rivalry  with  capital, 
and  to  attempt  its  rescue  from  the  hands  of  agitators 
who  in  fact  betray  what  they  affect  to  defend.  If  this  is 
the  lesson  taught  the  general  public,  those  who  are  specially 
identified  with  its  interests  must  also  learn  not  to  degrade 
them  by  sanctioning,  or  seeming  to  sanction,  the  rabid 
sentiments  that  found  expression  in  the  salles  of  the 
Redonte,  and  the  'Folie  Belleville'  during  the  year  of 
grace  1868.  Then  it  was  declared  by  Socialistic  fanatical 
spouters  that  "capital  is  accumulated  shame,"  "that  prop- 
erty is  not  theft,  as  it  has  been  styled  by  a  well-known 
writer,  it  is  assassination,"  and  "that  the  workman  who 
saves  his  earnings  is  a  traitor  to  his  brethren."  What  is 
to  be  hoped  from  such  rhapsodies  as  these?  Were  it  possi- 
ble to  convert  them  into  accepted  rules  of  conduct,  instead 
of  bringing  amelioration  to  the  suffering  masses  they  would 
be  confirmed  in  their  deplorable  condition;  endeavor  would 
be  ridiculed,  morality  would  be  abrogated,  and  all  habits 
of  frugality  would  be  set  aside;  and  as  a  result  civilization 
would  be  utterly  destroyed.  Xo  promise  for  anybody  or 
anything  in  such  a  state  of  things,  except  for  the  devil  and 
anarchy.  Not  even  the  humblest  hod-carrier  can  find  one 
ray  of  expectant  comfort  in  the  equality  advocated  by 
Molinari — "without  distinction  of  industrial  energy,  talent, 
or  virtue — absolute  equality  of  wages,  without  distinction 
of  quantity  or  quality  of  work — the  value  of  all  products 
of  labor  being  solely  estimated  by  the  time  taken  to  produce 
them."  (See  Le  Mouvement  Socialiste,  p.  14.)  Here  we 
have  radicalism  with  a  vengeance;  but  it  is  that  kind  of 
radicalism  which  is  as  fatal  to  those  who  approve  it  as  to  those 
who  reject.  It  is  the  programme  of  doomsday,  and  the 
harbinger  of  idleness,  shiftlessness,  unskillfulness,  and  of 
all  the  Pandemonium  vices  congenial  to  the  heart  of  wild- 
flaming  and  wild-thundering  lawlessness.  Society  has  no 


RELIGIOUS   INSPIRATION.  99 

place,  except  it  be  in  a  Bedlam's  pulpit,  for  such  a  discord- 
ant, drivelling,  and  screech-owlish  gospel  as  this.  No 
loadstar  this,  but  cruel  fantasm  only.  With  such  a  soul- 
less Frankenstein  let  industry  form  no  alliances.  If,  how- 
ever, it  shall  be  deceived  into  doing  so,  it  will  not  only 
stain  its  past  record,  but  it  will  blight  its  own  future;  for 
if  the  shapeless,  slouching  deformity  of  an  extreme  Social- 
ist's theory  should  be  galvanized  into  life,  like  that  other 
monster  described  by  Mrs.  Shelley  made  out  of  frag- 
ments picked  up  from  churchyards  and  dissecting-rooms,  it 
will  turn  and  inflict  dreadful  retribution  on  every  agency 
and  calling  that  had  to  do  with  its  creation. 

Religious  inspiration  is  the  last  of  the  special  forces  in- 
fluencing and  determining  progress,  to  which  serious  con- 
sideration need  be  given  in  this  discussion.  As  the  words 
imply,  we  do  not  here  refer  exclusively  to  Christianity. 
That  of  course,  and  that  preeminently,  but  not  that  alone. 
There  have  been  other  systems,  and  there  are  alleged  reve- 
lations, Divine  interpositions,  Heavenly  visions,  with  their 
hierarchies  of  flaming  angels  and  their  hosts  of  earthly 
marvel-workers.  Whether  any  of  these,  or  all  of  them, 
with  Christianity  added,  deserve  to  be  regarded  as  really 
supernatural  in  origin  and  substance,  or  only  as  shifting 
forms  of  the  permanent  Supernatural  Mystery  which  streams 
through  nature  on  humanity  as  "light  breaks  through  the 
darkest  cloud,"  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  decide.  We 
are  not  writing  in  the  interest  of  any  particular  creed, 
whether  it  be  true  or  false;  but  merely  to  record  the  fact  that 
every  nation  has  derived  from  its  accepted  and  cherished 
worship  an  impulse,  more  or  less  pronounced,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  progress.  Hence  it  is  that  Goethe  represents  the 
ages  of  faith  as  the  ages  of  greatest  achievement  and  honor. 
And, corroborating  this  position,  Max  Miiller  writes  "that 
the  epochs  in  the  world's  history  are  marked  not  by  the  foun- 
dation or  destruction  of  empires,  by  the  migrations  of  races 


100  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

or  by  French  revolutions."  "All  this  is  outward  history." 
"The  real  history  of  man,"  he  continues,  "is  the  history 
of  religion;  the  wonderful  ways  by  which  the  different 
families  of  the  human  race  advanced  toward  a  truer  knowl- 
edge and  a  deeper  love  of  God.  This  is  the  foundation 
that  underlies  all  profane  history ;  it  is  the  light,  the  soul 
and  the  life  of  history,  and  without  it  all  history  would 
indeed  be  profane."  Did  not  the  appearance  of  Buddha 
in  India  mark  the  dawning  of  a  new  period  of  amelioration, 
although  the  ideas  he  set  forth  possessed  not  the  vitality 
needful  to  carry  it  beyond  a  limited  stage?  Confucius  in 
China  unquestionably  exerted  a  tremendous  power  over  the 
public  mind  and  modified  the  character  of  the  empire 
through  all  subsequent  time.  Zarathustra,  also  called  Zo- 
roaster, with  the  Zend-Avesta  reforming  the  Magian  relig- 
ion, imparted  new  though  spasmodic  life  and  activity  to 
the  Persian  people.  So,  likewise,  Pythagoras  among  the 
Greeks,  regarded  by  some  of  his  contemporaries  as  the  son 
of  Apollo  or  Pythios,  quickened  the  intellect  and  con- 
science of  his  day,  and  his  career  was  the  beginning  of 
radical  changes  and  of  vast  improvements.  Of  his  ministry 
Grote  gives  a  distinct  impression  in  this  passage: 

His  preaching  and  his  conduct  produced  an  effect  almost  elec- 
tric upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  with  an  extensive  reform  public  as 
well  as  private.  Political  discontent  was  repressed,  incontinence  dis- 
appeared, luxury  became  discredited,  and  the  women  hastened  to 
change  their  golden  ornaments  for  the  simplest  attire. — Hist.  Greece, 
wl.  iv,  p.  546. 

Mohammed,  also,  deserves  to  be  classed  with  the  leaders 
in  the  highest  domain  of  thought  and  aspiration;  and  the 
date  of  his  famous  hegira,  July  16,  622,  gives  us  the  start- 
ing point  of  that  Moorish  civilization  which  has  probably 
found  its  warmest  eulogist  in  Dr.  John  William  Draper. 

But  among  all  of  these  great  representatives  of  Faith, 
therd  is  not  one  who  can  compare  in  greatness  with  Jesus 


TRIBUTES  TO   JESUS.  101 

of  Nazareth.  He  is,  as  Mill  testifies,  "unique,"  standing 
apart  from  all  others,  and  above  all  others  in  spiritual 
sublimity.  When  placed  by  his  side  the  "  Long-haired 
Samian  "  with  all  his  virtue  is  corrupt,  Krishna  is  black 
indeed,  Siddartha  is  dull  and  feeble,  and  the  prophet  of 
Allah  is  merely  a  grotesque  fanatic.  Whether  he  was 
really  divine,  or  divinely-human  is  not  the  question  here; 
but  that  he  is  the  Incomparable  One,  whose  advent 
indicates  a  new  historical  epoch,  and  imparts  to  progress  a 
fresh  and  abiding  impulse,  the  severest  critics  and  most 
impartial  judges  are  compelled  to  admit.  The  philoso- 
pher, Fichte,  wrote  of  him:  "He  did  more  than  all  other 
philosophers  in  bringing  heavenly  morality  into  the  hearts 
and  homes  of  common  men.  Till  the  end  of  time,  all  the 
sensible  will  bow  low  before  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  all 
will  humbly  acknowledge  the  exceeding  glory  of  this  great 
phenomenon."  Pecaut,  a  French  author  with  no  evangel- 
ical sympathies,  declares  that  "  Christ's  moral  character 
rose  beyond  comparison  above  that  of  any  other  great  man 
of  antiquity.  No  one  was  ever  so  gentle,  so  humble,  so 
kind  as  he.  In  his  spirit  he  lives  in  the  house  of  his 
Heavenly  Father.  His  moral  life  is  wholly  penetrated  by 
God.  He  was  the  master  of  all  because  he  was  really  their 
brother."  Yet,  more  decisively,  Richter,  who  was  far  from 
being  orthodox  in  his  theology,  describes  him  as  "the 
"purest  of  the  mighty,  the  mightiest  of  the  pure,  who,  with 
his  pierced  hands,  raised  empires  from  their  foundations, 
turned  the  stream  of  history  from  its  old  channels,  and 
still  continues  to  rule  and  guide  the  nations."  Mathew 
Arnold  admits  that  his  "  Spirit  governs  the  course  of 
humanity;"  David  Strauss  asserts  "that  perfect  piety  is 
not  possible  without  his  presence  in  the  heart";  and  Dide- 
rot could  not  deny  the  permanence  of  his  influence  on 
mankind.  Francis  Cobbe,  a  disciple  of  Theodore  Parker, 
adds  his  testimony  in  these  words; 

LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


102  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

The  originator  of  the  Christian  movement  must  have  been  the 
greatest  soul  of  his  time,  as  of  all  time.  *  *  *  *  The 
view  which  seems  to  be  the  sole  fitting  one  for  our  estimate  of  the 
character  of  Christ,  is  that  which  regards  him  as  the  great  REGENER- 
ATOR of  humanity.  His  coming  was  to  the  life  of  humanity  what 
regeneration  is  to  the  life  of  the  individual.  This  is  not  a  conclusion 
doubtfully  deduced  from  questionable  biographies,  but  a  broad,  plain 
inference  from  the  universal  history  of  our  race.  We  may  dispute 
all  details;  but  the  grand  result  is  beyond  criticism.  The  world  has 
changed,  and  that  change  is  historically  traceable  to  Christ. 

Such  citations  could  be  indefinitely  multiplied,  as  they 
have  been  by  Shedd  in  his  Person  of  Christ,  by  Professor 
Townsend  in  his  volume  on  What  Noted  Men  Tliink  of 
Christ,  etc.,  etc.,  and  by  Professor  Tillett  in  Christian 
Thought;  but  these  are  sufficient  for  our  purpose.  All 
these  writers  full}r  substantiate  what  we  have  assumed — 
namely:  that  progress  is  largely  indebted  to  religious 
inspiration;  for  how  can  it  be  true  that  Christ  governs  the 
course  of  humanity,  does  more  than  any  one  else  to  put 
heavenly  morality  in  the  hearts  of  common  men,  overthrows 
ancient  empires,  regenerates  the  race,  and  is  the  spring 
of  all  the  wide-sweeping  changes  of  modern  world-history, 
if  our  position  is  not  practically  unassailable?  We  rest 
it,  then,  first  of  all,  on  their  testimony;  but  more  than 
this,  they  convince  us  also,  that  while  every  great  religion 
has  contributed  in  some  way  and  in  some  degree,  and  orig- 
inally if  not  continuously,  to  social  advancement,  Christi- 
anity surpasses  them  all  in  the  strength,  breadth,  and 
permanence  of  its  beneficent  influence.  The  term  "  Chris- 
tianity" is  not  here  employed  as  synonymous  with 
"churches,"  but  as  expressive  of  our  Lord's  spirit  as  far 
as  it  is  manifest  in  them,  and  as  it  is  preeminently  reflected 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  And  thus  understood,  we  must 
recognize  its  superiority  to  all  other  faiths,  unless  the  senti- 
ments we  have  quoted  are  polite  nothings;  and  thus 
believing  we  must  go  farther,  and  find  the  climax  of  our 


LITERATURE   AND    FAITH.  103 

reasoning  in  the  majestic  words  of  Daniel  Webster:  "If 
we  abide  by  the  principles  taught  in  the  Bible,  our  country 
will  go  on  prospering  and  to  prosper;  but  if  we  and  our 
posterity  neglect  its  instructions  and  authority,  no  man 
can  tell  how  sudden  a  catastrophe  may  overwhelm  us,  and 
bury  all  our  glory  in  profound  obscurity." 

Undoubtedly  to  religious  inspiration  must  be  ascribed 
the  treasures  of  art  and  song,  and  the  more  precious  ideals, 
of  purity  and  nobility  which  enrich  our  struggling  world. 
One  cannot  read  Homer,  Dante,  Milton,  Shakspeare,  and 
the  more  recent  poets,  nor  such  philosophers  as  Socrates, 
Plato,  and  Descartes,  without  recognizing  back  of  their 
gorgeous  imagery,  and  interblending  with  their  profoundest 
thoughts,  influences  that  are  not  of  earth.  Strike  out 
everything  that  points  to  belief  in  the  supernatural,  and 
all  allusions  that  derive  force  and  beauty  from  confidence 
in  its  reality,  and  the  caput  mortmtm  that  will  be  left  no 
one  would  care  to  preserve.  Modern  literature  would  also 
be  wretchedly  poor,  desolate  and  barren,  were  the  positively 
Christian  element  eliminated;  and  life  itself  would  be 
dreary  and  unbearable  were  it  irrevocably  despoiled  of 
faith  in  God,  Christ,  and  immortality.  Horace  Binney 
Wallace,  whose  eloquent  papers  are  now  but  little  read, 
maintains  that  art  is  an  emanation  of  the  religious  affec- 
tions, and  he  argues  that  it  "has  always  had  an  intimate 
connection  with  the  character  and  degree  of  the  religious 
sensibility  of  the  people  among  whom  it  appeared."  To 
which  he  adds: 

There  is  no  instance  in  history  of  a  signal  manifestation  of  art- 
power,  except  among  people,  and  in  ages,  where  religious  enthusi- 
asm and  religiousness  of  nature  were  prominent  characteristics.  And 
further,  there  is  no  instance  of  supreme  excellence  in  art  being  reached, 
excepting  where  the  subject  of  the  artist's  thoughts  and  toils — the 
type  which  he  brought  up  to  perfection — was  to  him  an  object  of 
worship,  or  $  sacred  thing  immediately  connected  with  his  holiest 
reverence, 


104  STUDIES    IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

Some  admirable  illustrations  of  these  sentiments  the 
reader  will  find  in  Ph.  Fischer's  SpekuL  Ethik,  and  in 
Cousin's  True,  Beautiful  and  Good,  and  more  recently  in 
Ruskin's  Pleasures  of  England.  All  of  these  noted  writers 
substantially  agree  in  regarding  the  triumphs  of  chisel  and 
brush  as  being  directly  due  to  a  breath  from  the  unseen. 
And  this  is  equally  true  of  music  as  of  sculpture  and  paint- 
ing, the  former  being  a  special  gift  of  Christianity.  An- 
cient creeds  and  antique  genius  contributed  but  little  to 
the  world  of  tuneful  sound  which  yields  so  much  delight 
to  modern  ears.  Harmony  in  reality  sprang  from  the 
Cross,  where  God  and  man  were  brought  into  unison;  and 
when  this  primal  discord  was  being  healed,  music  des- 
cended from  heaven  to  earth  and  in  time  found  for  herself 
a  voice  in  bell  and  organ,  and  broke  forth  at  last  in  tender 
symphony,  stately  anthem,  majestic  oratorio,  and  in  plain- 
tive or  victorious  hymn.  The  new  Faith  was  heralded  by 
a  chorus  of  angels,  and  humanity  has  been  chorusing  ever 
since,  though  not  without  harsh  notes  here  and  there — 
sometimes  chanting  softly,  then  loudly,  sometimes  sadly, 
but  always  hopefully  and  praisefully. 

Beyond  all  this  and  more  important,  Christianity  has 
quickened  the  moral  life  of  Society — stupefied  though  it 
frequently  is — by  the  principles  it  has  revealed,  by  the 
sacred  examples  it  has  presented,  and  by  the  hopes  it  has 
kindled.  In  nothing  is  the  far  off  past  so  different  from 
the  present  as  in  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in 
man's  estimate  of  conscience.  Its  reality,  office  and 
authority  were  scarcely  appreciated  by  the  generations 
which  preceded  Christ's  ministry  as  they  have  been 
since.  With  us  the  moral  sense  is  distinctly  acknowledged; 
we  claim  that  it  should  be  sovereign  in  conduct;  and 
though  we  are  inexcusably  and  outrageously  disloyal 
in  numberless  instances  to  its  promptings,  many  of  us 
are  still  filled  with  nameless  fear  and  awful  reverence 


RELIGION,    MORALITY   AXD    INDUSTRY.  105 

before  its  august  tribunal.  This  is  an  immense  gain  over 
former  ethical  conceptions.  Our  standpoint  at  least  is 
right,  though  our  departures  from  it  are  frequent  and 
flagrant.  We  ought  to  be  better  than  the  ancients,  and 
better  than  we  are;  for  we  have  in  the  Bible  the  clearest 
precepts  for  our  guidance,  and  the  loftiest  motives  for  our 
encouragement  in  the  path  of  duty.  The  most  impartial 
judges,  and  even  the  most  inveterate  enemies,  admit  the 
incalculable  value  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  the  domain  of 
morals,  and  if  multitudes  of  the  present  generation  are 
not  righteous,  it  is  owing  to  an  unhappy  revival  of  skep- 
ticism. Diderot,  the  infidel,  who  once  called  the  Heavenly 
Oracles  "the  devil  of  a  book"  (de  ce  diable  de  livre,)  on 
another  occasion  said:  " No  better  lessons  can  I  teach  my 
child  than  those  of  the  Bible."  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  is 
usually  ranked  with  doubters,  also  wrote:  "  I  have  always 
said,  and  always  will  say,  that  the  studious  perusal  of 
the  sacred  volume  will  make  better  citizens,  better 
fathers,  and  better  husbands."  Goethe  confesses  his 
indebtedness  to  the  Scriptures  both  in  his  literary  and 
moral  pursuits;  John  Ruskin  has  gracefully  made  a  similar 
acknowledgment;  and  Professor  Huxley,  though  in  favor 
of  secular  education,  admits  that  without  them  he  does  not 
see  how  the  religious  feeling,  which  is  the  essential  basis  of 
conduct,  can  be  maintained. 

Intimately  connected  with  the  ethical  significance  of 
Christianity  must  be  ranked  its  elevating  influence  on  in- 
dustry. This  has  been  adverted  to  in  another  place;  but 
it  is  deserving  of  special  mention  here.  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle alike  agreed  in  the  view  that  "all  common  labor  and 
trading  are  incompatible  with  true  political  virtue  and 
prosperity."  They  said,  "such  a  life  is  ignoble."  (Rep. 
1.  347,  and  Polit.  III.  3,  2,  VII I.)  Cicero  likewise  wrote 
of  it  in  contemptuous  terms.  (Tiisc.  V.  42;  de  ojfic.  1. 
42.)  But  on  the  other  hand  the  Jewish  faith  treated  it 


106  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

with  respect,  and  according  to  the  proofs  collected  by 
Delitzsch,  magnified  its  importance  to  the  State.  The 
doctrine  of  Christianity  on  the  subject  is  expressed  in 
Epli.  IV,  28;  1  Thess.  IV,  II;  2  Thess.  Ill,,  10-12; 
and  these  passages  show  the  essential  honorableness  of  toil 
and  the  everlasting  shame  of  idleness  and  dependence. 
Potent  have  these  teachings  been  in  delivering  the  masses 
from  their  worst  enemy — the  sense  of  personal  degradation 
when  earning  their  living  in  the  sweat  of  the  brow.  Well 
may  we  say  of  the  relation  of  religion  to  manual  labor 
what  De  Tocqueville  has  said  of  its  connection  with  lib- 
erty: "  Bible  Christianity  has  been  its  companion  in  all 
conflicts,  was  the  cradle  of  its  infancy,  and  is  the  Divine 
source  of  its  claims."  But  in  addition  to  these  practical 
benefits  conferred  on  Society  by  this  inspiring  agency,  we 
must  not  overlook  its  direct  bearing  on  science.  The  men 
who  have  led  in  the  exploration  of  nature  have  been 
incited  in  no  small  degree  by  their  deep  reverence  for  the 
Creator,  and  they  have  attributed  their  most  notable  dis- 
coveries to  His  aid.  Pythagoras  sacrificed  a  hecatomb  to 
the  gods  when  he  arrived  at  his  famous  geometrical  the- 
orem  concerning  the  squares  of  a  right-angled  triangle; 
Kepler  was  wild  with  praise  when  he  concluded  his  dem- 
onstration of  planetary  motion;  and  other  scientists, 
though  sometimes  counted  infidels,  have  been  as  devout  of 
soul  as  many  who  have  been  enrolled  in  the  glorious  com- 
pany of  the  saints.  This  ground  we  know  is  considered 
debatable  by  many,  and  we  are  not  disposed  to  dispute  it 
with  them.  We  know  that  the  attitude  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  toward  scientific  research,  and  the  hos- 
tility of  some  fossilized  protestant  preachers  to  its  un- 
doubted achievements,  have  prejudiced  not  a  few  candid 
and  intelligent  people  against  religion,  and  consequently 
they  are  blind  to  the  services  it  has  rendered  to  this 
department  of  inquiry.  We  can  sympathize  with  them  tq 


RELIGION    AND   SCIENCE.  107 

some  extent,  although  we  cannot  agree  with  them,  and 
sincerely  believe  they  are  in  error.  As  we  read  history, 
from  the  time  when  the  Chaldeans  first  lifted  their  eyes 
to  the  starry  heavens,  to  the  day  when  Bacon,  father  of 
material  induction,  taught  that  depth  of  attainment 
in  natural  philosophy  would  bring  the  mind  back 
to  God,  we  perceive  a  reverence  for  the  Creator  and 
His  works  which  goes  far  to  explain,  what  is  otherwise 
unexplainable,  the  patient  assiduity,  and  heroic  courage, 
and  unabated  ardor  of  the  men  who  have  plucked  knowledge 
from  the  dizzy  heights  of  the  universe,  dug  it  up  from  the 
stony  heart  of  the  earth,  and  gathered  it  from  every  object 
near  and  remote,  even  pushing  their  ambitious  conquests 
to  the  borders  of  the  impenetrable.  If  some  of  their  suc- 
cessors have  lost  this  invigorating  faith,  and  if  some  rep- 
resentatives of  Christianity  have  ceased  to  sympathize  with 
their  sublime  pursuit,  we  pity  both;  but  the  privation  of 
the  one  and  the  opposition  of  the  other  can  never  obliterate 
the  evidences  that  exist  of  the  helpful  and  stimulating  min- 
istry gladly  exercised  by  our  holy  religion  on  behalf  of  gen* 
uine  science.  But  this  point  need  not  be  pressed.  Enough 
has  been  said  on  other  aspects  of  the  relation  of  spiritual 
forces  to  progress  for  us  to  believe  with  Jouffroy,  Mel- 
anges Philos.  p.  424,  that  "Christianity  is  the  commence- 
ment of  civilization  and  education  to  the  uncivilized 
nations,"  and  is  a  permanent  source  of  betterment,  emen- 
dation and  refinement  "everywhere.  And  if  this  is  the 
case,  Society  cannot  safely  dispense  with  its  offices.  To 
ridicule  them,  to  revile  them  is  to  be  guilty  of  a  sin 
against  humanity  as  well  as  against  God. 

So  called  Ethical  culture  can  never  compensate  for 
what  it  would  supplant.  It  is  a  sign  of  the  disastrous  out- 
come of  Agnosticism  that  in  proportion  as  it  wins  disciples, 
thinking  people  are  hysterically  shrieking  notes  of  alarm 
regarding  morality.  They  are  asking  how  their  children 


108  STUDIES    IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

are  to  acquire  right  principles  of  conduct,  and  whether 
there  will  be  any  such  principles  at  all  in  the  near  future. 
No  assuring  replies  yet  have  been  made  to  their  anxious 
inquiries ;  and  so  they  are  left  to  toss  about  on  the  waves 
of  doubt,  doubt  fast  rising  to  despair.  We  respectfully 
advise  them  to  consult  Martensen's  Systems  der  Moral- 
philosophic,  and  there  they  will  learn  that  "a  moral  phil- 
osophy which  ignores  Christianity,  ignores  also  actual 
morality,  and  thus  renders  itself  unpractical ;"  and  we 
commend  as  wholesome  the  words  of  Rousseau  in  the 
Troisieme  Lettre  de  la  Montague,  "I  do  not  know  why  men 
insist  on  ascribing  the  excellent  morality  of  our  books  to 
the  progress  of  philosophy.  This  morality,  which  is  de- 
rived from  the  gospel,  was  Christian  before  it  was  philo- 
sophical." 

These  sentiments  contain  the  antidote  needed  to  coun- 
teract the  poison  which  antipathy  to  religion  is  injecting 
into  modern  life.  If  rectitude,  honor,  purity,  and  all  the 
ennobling  virtues  are  to  flourish  in  this  land  and  in  others, 
they  must  be  planted  in  the  Faith  which  was  bestowed  by 
Christ  as  Heaven's  richest  gift  to  earth,  and  must  be  nourish- 
ed by  its  grace.  Nay,  more  than  this,  if  order  is  to  be  pre- 
served among  the  people,  respect  for  the  authority  of  civil  law 
maintained,  if  resignation  and  contentment  are  to  mitigate 
the  pangs  of  the  poor,  and  the  fair  hopes  of  immortal 
blessedness  comfort  them  in  tribulation,  this  Divine  boon 
must  neither  be  degraded  nor  discarded.  Significant  and 
awfully  portentous  are  the  bitter  complaints  and  denunci- 
ations of  the  Berlin  Sozial-Demokrat,  March  12,  1865  ;  and 
our  would-be  iconoclasts  and  our  frenzied  agitators  had 
better  lay  the  timely  warning  they  contain  to  heart.  We 
give  them  the  benefit  of  the  admonition  in  Taylor's  trans- 
lation of  Luthardt : 

When  the  priesthood  bowed  the  neck  of  mankind,  it  gave  to  the 
suffering  son  of  man  the  kindly  hope  of  another  and  a  better  world. 


GODLESS  CIVILIZATION.  109 

In  all  the  misfortunes  of  life,  in  sorrow,  need  and  sickness,  a  sweet 
hope  was  still  left  to  a  believing  mind.  But  what  is  now  the 'case  ? 
There  are  still  poverty  and  privation,  sorrow,  need,  and  sickness. 
These  are  artificially  enhanced  and  heaped  up  upon  one  class,  while 
the  pleasures  and  good  things  of  the  world  combine  to  enrich  the 
others  ******  What  then  have  the  favored  of  human 
society  to  offer  to  those  millions,  through  whose  sickness,  increased 
by  poverty  and  care,  they  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  earth  ?  We  tolerate 
no  halfness  and  no  expedients,  we  desire  the  full  results,  the  whole 
truth.  Ye  wretched  Pharisees  of  free  churches,  of  liberal  citizenship, 
who  have  deprived  the  people  of  the  consolations  of  faith,  and  yet 
will  not  remove  from  them  the  iron  yoke  of  your  iron  machines, 
where  then  is  your  logic  ?  The  logic  of  history  is  sterner  than  yours  : 
the  people  have  done  with  heaven — they  are  justified  in  claiming 
earth. 

This  is  the  language  of  desperation,  and  is  bodeful  of 
anarchy  and  bloodshed.  Even  a  selfish  priesthood,  and  a 
deformed  type  of  Christianity,  were  more  merciful  and 
helpful  than  the  soulless,  godless  civilization,  or  rather  re- 
fined barbarism,  projected  by  the  enemies  of  Divine  Revela- 
tion. Pure  religion  and  undefiled,  not  only  sustains  by  the 
promises  of  everlasting  felicity,  but  by  tender  offices  of 
love,  promoting  brotherhood  and  constraining  the  rich  to 
remember  the  poor,  brings  with  it  to  every  community 
stability  and  peace.  Unhappy,  then,  the  day,  if  ever  it 
should  darkly  dawn  upon  the  world,  when  its  altars  shall 
be  broken  down,  its  temples  be  forsaken,  and  its  humanizing 
teachings  be  discredited  and  despised.  The  extinction  of  the 
fires  of  ancient  Greece,  and  the  devastating  rush  of  untamed 
hordes  on  imperial  Rome  would  be  nothing  in  comparison 
to  the  black  night  and  savage  madness  that  would  overtake 
the  nations  were  the  light  of  the  gospel  to  expire  and  the 
fierce  Vandals  and  Huns  of  impiety  triumph.  We  cannot 
believe  in  so  dolorous  an  issue  to  all  the  consecrated  en- 
deavors of  unnumbered  saintly  workers,  nor  can  we  imagine 
it  possible  for  Providence  to  permit  humanity  to  fall  a  suf- 
fering prey  to  the  arts  of  hell;  but  yet,  if  we  would  avert 


110  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

even  the  shadows  of  so  dire  a  fate  from  the  race  let  us  not 
rest  satisfied  with  this  optimistic  feeling  of  security. 
Kather,  learning  from  the  past  that  religious  inspiration  is 
indispensable  to  progress,  let  us  heartily  and  diligently 
exert  ourselves  to  preserve  the  institutions  of  Christianity 
from  the  assaults  of  misguided  men,  thus  transmitting  to 
the  future  the  mightiest  of  all  agencies  for  the  regeneration 
and  happiness  of  Society. 

On  the  22d  of  June,  1635,  in  the  church  of  Santa 
Maria  sopra  Minerva,  Galileo  read  his  recantation  and 
received  his  sentence.  Tradition  declares  that  after  he 
had  abjured,  he  whispered  in  silvery  Italian:  "  E  pur  si 
mnove!"  What  he  almost  inaudibly  murmured  in  these 
bitter  circumstances,  we  are  prepared,  in  view  of  all  the 
facts  brought  out  in  this  discussion,  to  affirm  distinctly  and 
emphatically  of  the  social  world.  It  also  moves:  it  has 
moved ;  and  whatever  the  Solitary  of  Frankfort,  and  the 
Art  professor  of  Oxford  may  say  to  the  contrary,  it  is  still 
moving,  and  must  in  the  future  move.  The  examination 
of  the  forces  which  have  contributed  to  progress,  as  we  have 
seen,  witnesses  to  its  reality  and  warrants  the  expectation  of 
its  continuance.  In  this  confidence  we  may,  therefore, 
rest;  nay,  more  than  this,  sustained  by  this  confidence  we 
may  earnestly  labor  to  bring  in  the  wished-for  day  which 
shall  practically  end  the  sore  travail  of  humanity.  But  at 
this  point  we  may  be  criticized  for  not  including  among 
the  sources  and  means  of  advancement  the  beneficent  power 
of  association  and  the  transforming  might  of  revolution. 
We  admit  that  something,  perhaps  much,  can  be  said  in 
their  favor;  and  yet  a  little  reflection  will  show  that  their 
claims  are  not  of  such  a  character  as  to  warrant  the  same 
degree  of  attention  as  has  been  given  in  this  paper  to  those 
of  liberty,  intelligence  and  religion.  Let  it  be  remembered 
that  Society  is  itself  primarily  "  association,"  and  that  in 
considering  the  causes  of  its  development  it  would  hardly 


REVOLUTIONS.  Ill 

be  logical  to  class  itself.  Were  we  writing  of  the  elevation 
of  man  as  man  it  would  doubtless  be  eminently  fitting  to 
indicate  clearly  how  far  this  has  been  promoted  by  inter- 
communication with  his  fellow-beings,  and  by  the  obliga- 
tions and  privileges  of  communal  life.  But  as  our  argument 
proceeds  on  the  supposition  that  he  is  a  member  of  Society, 
and  only  in  this  relation  concerns  us,  we  have  not  felt 
called  on  to  vindicate  the  intrinsic  worth  of  "association" 
itself.  A  different  course  would  have  involved  us  in  the 
useless  task  of  proving  the  indispensableness  of  Society  to 
the  progress  of  Society;  a  position  that  may  be  assumed, 
just  as  we  take  for  granted  the  actual  existence  of  a  body 
when  we  undertake  to  treat  of  its  growth.  Nevertheless, 
we  concede  that  some  associations  within  the  community, 
such  as  some  charity  organizations,  art  guilds,  trades  unions, 
and  some  co-operative  movements  are  highly  important  to 
the  general  welfare,  and  in  the  main  are  conducive  to  ad- 
vancement. How  far  these  may  be  advantageously  encour- 
aged, and  what  particular  features  must  ever  distinguish 
them  if  they  are  to  be  countenanced  at  all,  need  not  here 
be  determined.  These  inquiries  will  arise  further  on,  and 
for  the  present  we  must  rest  content  with  this  general  ac- 
knowledgment of  their  value. 

We  are  likewise  constrained  to  dismiss  the  claims  of 
revolutions  with  a  very  few  remarks  explanatory  of  our 
position  regarding  their  influence.  They  have  at  times 
wrought  or  seem  to  have  wrought  wonderful  changes, 
as  in  France  when  the  old  order  was  violently  over- 
thrown and  a  new  state  of  things  was  inaugurated. 
The  French  revolution  was  indeed  a  sublime  movement, 
and,  with  all  the  evils  attending  it,  was  the  source 
of  manifold  blessings.  But  where  it  succeeded,  how 
many  similiar  upheavals  resulted  only  in  disastrous  failure, 
and  how  many  more  ended  in  worse  than  failure,  being 
merely  reactionary  enterprises  of  tyrants  by  which  the 


112  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

people  were  rendered  more  helpless  and  wretched  than  ever. 
At  best  it  can  only  be  claimed  that  some  revolutions  have 
made  for  progress:  many  of  them,  alas!  have  made  for 
retrogression.  But  when  we  have  granted  this  much,  it  is 
still  not  clear  whether  the  stormf ul  uprising  of  the  masses, 
with  battlings  at  barricades,  processionings  of  mobs  waving 
ensanguined  pikes,  wholesale  decapitations,  and  tragical 
trials  of  kings  and  nobles,  can  properly  be  regarded  as  a 
cause  of  advancement,  or  merely  as  a  stage  and  phase  of  its 
history.  Back  of  all  such  violent  agitations  there  are 
ideas,  hopes,  plans,  theories,  philosophies,  and  these  in  the 
judgement  of  the  best  thinkers  deserve  to  be  credited  with 
whatever  of  gain  seems  to  proceed  from  strife  and  bloodshed. 
These  may  be  compared  to  the  brain,  and  revolutions  to 
the  hand;  and  as  we  attribute  the  effects  wrought  out  by 
the  hand  to  the  brain,  so  we  are  evidently  justified  in 
ascribing  progress  primarily  to  the  ideas  which  find  expres- 
sion in  revolution,  and  only  in  a  secondary  sense  to  revolu- 
tion itself.  This  doubt  existing,  we  have  not  felt  that  we 
ought  to  class  the  fierce  and  terrible  outbreaks  of  popular 
anger  or  enthusiasm  with  those  permanent  and  uniform 
means  by  which  Society  has  been  steadily  improved. 
Revolutions  unquestionably  are  dangerous  and  uncertain 
experiments,  and  writers  who  become  their  eulogists  should 
never  forget  that  the  praise  which  they  pronounce  so  lavishly 
may  mislead.the  ignorant,  and  may  result  in  commotions 
as  unwise  as  they  are  unnecessary.  To  extol  them  un- 
duly would  be  to  imitate  that  Paul  Sarpi  of  Venice,  who 
exclaimed  "  Esto  Perpetua  "  when  commending  an  infam- 
ous constitution;  for  it  is  to  imply  that  they  are  abiding 
remedies  for  social  wrongs  and  evils,  and  therefore  may  be 
relied  on  in  almost  every  emergency.  Such  impressions  are 
always  to  be  deplored.  They  are  pregnant  with  mischief, 
encouraging  blatant  and  reckless  agitators  to  incen- 
diary words  and  deeds  which  threaten  our  common 


OPPOSITION   TO   PROGRESS.  113 

peace  and  prosperity.  For  these  reasons,  therefore,  we 
have  challenged  their  right  to  rank  with  the  moral  and 
material  forces  which  have  been  presented  at  length  in  this 
paper;  and  now  most  earnestly  we  entreat  all  who  may  per- 
use these  pages  to  use  their  utmost  endeavor  to  convince 
the  populace  in  these  times  of  restlessness  and  discontent, 
that  what  is  yet  to  be  attained  can  only  be  secured,  as 
Milton  wrote  of  glory — 

Without  ambition,  war,  or  violence, — 
By  deeds  of  peace,  by  wisdom  eminent, 
By  patience,  temperance. 

The  Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  in  an  oration  on  the  subject 
discussed  in  this  chapter,  gives  some  amusing  illustrations 
of  unyielding  conservatism ;  and  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his 
Study  of  Sociology,  points  out  the  manifold  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  any  invention  or  improvement,  even  to  the 
adoption  of  so  simple  a  remedy  as  lemon  juice  for  the 
scurvy.  '  We  cannot  fail  to  smile  at  the  antagonisms  which 
they  describe,  though  some  of  the  incidents  they  relate, 
and  others  not  related  by  them,  may  well  move  us  to  tears 
instead  of  to  laughter.  But  whether  humorous  or  pathetic, 
they  alike  serve  to  bring  into  relief  what  we  should  lay  to 
heart  as  we  close  this  chapter — the  attitude  we  ought  our- 
selves to  assume.  "  Brother  of  Winchester,"  according  to 
Sumner.  said  Cranmer  to  Lord  Chancellor  Gardyner,  "you 
like  not  anything  new,  unless  you  be  yourself  the  author 
thereof."  "Your  Grace  wrongeth  me,"  replied  the  pre- 
late. "I  have  never  been  author  yet  of  any  one  new 
thing;  for  which  I  thank  my  God."  The  same  eloquent 
witness  also  points  out  how  Sir  Samuel  Romilly's  efforts  to 
reform  the  jurisprudence  of  England  were  denounced  as 
imperiling  the  criminal  code  of  the  realm;  how  Harvey 
lost  his  practice  and  was  accounted  crazy  when  he  published 
his  work  on  the  circulation  of  the  blood;  how  the  proposals 
to  light  the  streets  toward  the  end  of  Charles  the  Second's 


114  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

reign  excited  grave  apn/ehensions;  and  how  the  Quarterly 
Review,  on  the  application  of  steam  to  locomotion,  ridi- 
culed the  idea  that  people  would  be  insane  enough  to  trust 
their  lives  to  a  machine  rushing  on  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
miles  an  hour.  Referring  to  steam  recalls  the  struggles, 
disappointments  and  sufferings  of  the  men  who  were  among 
the  first  to  discern  its  marvelous  possibilities;  and  in  all 
biography  there  is  no  career  as  sad  and  yet  as  sublime  as 
that  of  the  patient  and  laborious  Fitch,  whose  bitter  expe- 
riences drove  him  to  a  suicide's  grave.  All  such  cases  as 
these  come  to  us  with  one  lesson — namely,  the  utter 
impossibility  of  staying  the  rush  and  sweep  of  progress. 
In  the  fullness  of  time  discoveries,  inventions,  reforms 
vindicate  themselves,  and  compel  allegiance  even  on  the 
part  of  those  who  have  reviled  them.  Fortunes  may  be 
lost,  hearts  may  be  broken,  and  lives  be  sacrificed,  but 
there  is  only  one  conceivable  issue  to  the  Struggle.  The 
new,  if  it  is  true,  must  supplant  and  overthrow  the  old,  if 
it  is  false.  Some  way  will  be  found  to  elude  inquisitors 
and  censors,  some  scheme  hit  on  to  defeat  the  lovers  of 
darkness  and  to  bring  in  the  light.  This  is  very  happily 
illustrated  by  the  course  pursued  by  Jacquier  and  Le  Seur, 
two  members  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis,  called  Minimi, 
when  they  popularized  the  Principia  of  Newton.  They 
prepared  a  commentary  on  the  sublime  discoveries  of  that 
philosopher;  but  the  pope  had  forbidden  any  one  to  main- 
tain his  pernicious  doctrines.  How  then  could  they  pub- 
lish and  yet  escape  censure?  How  could  they  bow  to  the 
authority  of  the  pope,  and  yet  reveal  to  mankind  the 
teachings  of  Newton?  The  expedient  they  adopted  was 
simple,  if  not  altogether  ingenuous.  They  wrote  a  preface 
declaring  that  they  submitted  to  the  decision  of  their 
spiritual  head  that  the  sun  moved  round  the  earth,  but 
that  they  had  been  incited  by  curiosity  to  show  what  would 
have  been  the  state  of  affairs,  had  it  been  a  truth  instead 


OUR  ATTITUDE.  115 

of  a  fiction,  that  the  earth  moved  round  the  sun.  Wise 
Franciscans,  erudite  friars,  your  sanctified  cunning,  if  not 
entirely  commendable,  is  at  least  excusable,  and  ought  to 
convince  inveterate  conservatives  that  the  arts  and  sciences 
will  stride  onward,  and  will  find  advocates  where  they  are 
least  suspected.  The  stream  cannot  be  successfully  resisted; 
how  foolish,  then,  to  interpose  barriers  which  are  bound  to 
yield.  Better  go  with  the  current,  especially  when  it  assur- 
edly leads  to  calm,  expansive  seas  and  to  cloudless  skies. 
Doubtless  it  is  wise  not  to  embrace  every  proposal,  not  to 
abandon  the  old  without  investigation,  and  not  to  pull 
down  hastily  when  we  have  no  plans  or  material  for  build- 
ing up.  But  this  justifiable  prudence  is  very  different 
from  the  spirit  of  a  Gardyner,  which  was  blind  to  the 
advantages  of  departures  from  what  time  and  custom  had 
rendered  venerable,  if  not  sacred.  The  eye  should  be  open 
to  see,  and  the  hand  be  ready  to  grasp  whatever  may 
advance  the  well-being  of  Society,  and  that,  too,  whether 
it  appear  in  the  domain  of  politics,  science,  or  theology. 

This  should  be  our  attitude.  Toward  things  doubtful 
we  should  be  conservative,  toward  everything  proven  radi- 
cal. We  should  believe  that  the  inventive  force  of  human- 
ity is  not  spent,  and  that  the  future  must  have  develop- 
ments as  wondrous  as  any  of  the  past.  Our  attitude 
should  be  one  of  expectancy  and  sympathy.  We  should 
look  for  new  things,  and  should  hold  ourselves  ready  to 
accept  them  and  cooperate  with  them.  Nay,  more  than 
this,  we  should  ourselves  become  critics  of  the  old,  and 
should  be  aggressive  in  our  thoughts  and  deeds  against 
every  wrong,  every  error,  and  every  evil.  Unless  the  signs 
of  the  times  deceive  us,  we  are  on  the  eve  of  remarkable 
events.  Never  were  the  appliances  of  civilization  as  numer- 
ous and  varied  as  they  are  at  present,  never  were  our 
resources  as  great,  and  never  were  hopes  of  grand  achieve- 
ments as  high  as  they  are  now.  Amid  all  the  noise  and 


116  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

confusion  of  traffic,  and  the  wailing  cries  of  suffering  thous- 
ands, sound  voices  sweet  with  promise.  The  skies  may  be 
dark,  but  the  sun  is  ascending  toward  the  zenith;  the 
voyage  may  be  tempestuous,  but  the  port-lights  gleam  just 
ahead ;  and  the  strife  and  clash  may  be  intense  and  deafen- 
ing, but  the  very  earnestness  of  the  conflict  presages  a 
speedy  victory.  To  our  stations  then,  whether  at  the  helm 
to  guide  or  on  the  field  to  fight.  Esperance  et  Dien  be  the 
motto  of  the  age;  and  with  this  sentiment  inscribed  on  our 
banners  and  inspiring  our  hearts,  there  can  be  no  difficul- 
ties unconquerable  and  no  blessings  unattainable. 

There's  a  fount  about  to  stream, 
There's  a  light  about  to  beam, 
There's  a  warmth  about  to  glow, 
There's  a  flower  about  to  blow, 
There's  a  midnight  blackness  changing 

Into  gray: 
Men  of  thought,  and  men  of  action, 

Clear  tlw  way! 

Aid  the  dawning  tongue  and  pen! 
Aid  it,  hopes  of  honest  men! 
Aid  it,  paper!  aid  it  type! 
Aid  it,  for  the  hour  is  ripe, 
And  our  earnest  must  not  slacken 

Into  play: 
Men  of  thought,  and  men  of  action, 

Clear  tlie  way! 


III. 

THE  INEQUALITIES  OF  SOCIETY. 

And  this  to  fill  us  with  regard  to  man, 

With  apprehension  of  his  passing  worth, 

Desire  to  work  his  proper  nature  out, 

And  ascertain  his  rank  and  final  place; 

For  these  things  tend  still  upward — progress  is 

The  law  of  life — man's  self  is  not  yet  man! 

Nor  shall  I  deem  his  object  served,  his  end 

Attained,  his  genuine  strength  put  fairly  forth, 

While  only  here  and  there  a  star  dispels 

The  darkness,  here  and  there  a  towering  mind 

O'erlooks  its  prostrate  fellows;  when  the  host 

Is  out  at  once  to  the  despair  of  night, 

When  all  mankind  alike  is  perfected, 

Equal  in  full-blown  powers — then,  not  till  then, 

I  say,  begins  man's  general  infancy! 

For  wherefore  make  account  of  feverish  starts 

Of  restless  members  of  a  dormant  whole — 

Impatient  nerves  which  quiver  while  the  body 

Slumbers  as  in  a  grave? 

— Robert  Browning. 

r  I  CHOUGH  the  moon  is  shadowy,  to  the  unaided  eye 
-*-  its  surface  appears  to  be  smooth.  This,  however,  is 
an  illusion  which  the  telescope  speedily  dissipates;  for  that 
instrument  reveals  a  planet  diversified  by  towering 
mountains  rising  from  eight  thousand  to  ten  thousand 
feet  above  dreary  plains,  and  by  rugged  valleys  deepen- 
ing from  ten  thousand  to  seventeen  thousand  feet,  whose 
precipitous  sides  have  been  torn  and  scarred  by  volcanic 
fires.  It  is  a  sublime  satellite,  and  yet  a  sorrowful  one,  one 

117 


118  STUDIES   1ST   SOCIAL    LIFE. 

whose  yawning  abysses,  hideous  cavities,  and  frightful 
chasms  proclaim  struggles  of  stupendous  magnitude  and 
convulsions  of  tragical  destructiveness,  such  as  our  world 
has  never  witnessed,  which  have  prevailed  in  the  dateless 
past,  and  left  behind  the  melancholy  memorials  of  their 
power.  Like  the  moon,  our  earth  seen  from  a  distance 
must  present  the  aspect  of  a  monotonous  sphere,  whose 
crust  is  unbroken  and  unfurrowed,  and  whose  expression- 
less face  is  without  form,  and  featureless.  But  drawing 
nearer  this  impression  would  cease,  and  it  would  be  per- 
ceived that  our  globe  is  exceedingly  rugged,  uneven, 
irregular  and  multiform.  AVe  who  live  upon  its  bosom 
know  the  practically  endless  variety  of  its  scenery,  its 
savage  wildernesses,  its  arcadian  vales,  its  gloomy  canons, 
its  dreary  oceans  of  water  and  its  drearier  oceans  of  sand, 
its  depressions  almost  excluding  the  light  of  day  and  its 
elevations  straining  for  companionship  with  the  stars  of 
night.  And  these  physical  inequalities,  these  extremes  of 
height  and  depth,  of  length  and  breadth,  and  of  radiance 
and  darkness,  find  unhappy  correspondences  in  human 
Society  which  have  grown  up  among  them,  and  which  to 
some  extent  have  taken  on  their  likeness.  The  social  is  a 
counterpart  of  the  material;  the  configurations  of  the  one 
are  reproduced  in  the  other.  There  are  doubtless  many 
who  never  think  of  these  resemblances — men  and  women 
whose  tastes  and  pursuits  separate  them  as  far  from  the 
actualities  of  life  as  this  planet  is  distanced  from  the  moon, 
and  who  see  the  diversities  of  the  one  as  they  see  the  shadows 
of  the  other.  They  withdraw  from  close  contact  with  their 
fellow-beings,  have  no  particular  interest  in  their  welfare, 
shut  out  every  unpleasant  fact,  and  give  themselves  over  to 
dreamy  views  of  happy  uniformities  and  blissful  harmonies. 
Such  people  are  as  self-deceived  as  they  who  should  permit 
themselves  to  be  misled  by  lunar  appearances. 

It  is  indeed  true,  as  we  have  shown,  that  in  politics 


DISTINCTIONS   AND    DISCRIMINATIONS.  119 

the  rigidity  of  caste  has  been  successfully  relaxed,  and  the 
outrageous  discriminations  of  former  ages  have  been 
legally  abolished.  We  all  have  a  voice  in  the  administra- 
tion of  civil  affairs,  or  may  have  if  we  wish,  and  many 
have  who  might  just  as  well  be  silent  for  all  the  good  they 
do  the  nation.  This  much  is  achieved,  but  in  a  different 
direction  much  remains  to  be  accomplished.  And  as  we 
approach  the  special  topic  of  this  and  the  succeeding 
chapter  we  pause  irresolute;  for  what  we  have  to  write  is 
so  soul-harrowing  that  we  hesitate  lest  it  should  seem 
that  the  progress  we  have  described  is  hardly  worth  the 
name  when  so  many  evils  have  been  left  untouched.  But 
we  must  on,  however  painful  the  task.  The  fact  is,  and 
we  may  as  well  confront  it  first  as  last,  Society,  though 
far  in  advance  of  what  it  was  centuries  ago,  is  rifted  and 
rent  from  one  end  to  the  other  by  manifold  inequalities. 
AVhen  this  is  said,  distinctions  which  are  the  outgrowth 
of  civil  government  are  not  referred  to;  for  these  are 
necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order,  and  in  a 
sense,  are  representative  of  the  entire  people.  It  is  rea- 
sonable that  there  should  be  rulers,  magistrates  and  other 
officers  of  State;  for  as  Shakespeare  has  expressed  it — 

The  heavens  themselves,  the  planets  and  this  center. 
Observe  degree,  priority,  and  place,     *    *    * 
Office  and  custom,  in  all  line  of  order    *    *    * 
Take  but  degree  away,  untune  that  string, 
And  hark,  what  discord  follows!  each  thing  meets 
In  mere  oppugnancy. 

But  while  it  is  eminently  fitting  that  there  be  chief- 
tancy  for  the  administration  of  public  affairs,  it  does  not 
seem  either  reasonable  or  fitting  that  men,  and  whole 
classes  of  men,  should  be  separated  from  each  other  by 
differences  as  radical  as  those  which  divide  the  frigid  from 
the  torrid  zone.  Impressive  and  instructive  that  scene  in 
the  Wood  of  Senart  when  a  luxurious  Louis,  royally  ca- 


120  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

parisoned  for  hunting,  met  a  wretched  peasant  with  a 
coffin.  "For  whom?"  inquires  the  gorgeous  sportsman. 
Carlyle,  whose  words  we  quote,  says,  "  For  a  poor  brother 
slave,  whom  majesty  had  sometimes  noticed  slaving  in 
those  quarters.  'What  did  he  die  of?'  'Of  hunger.' 
The  king  gave  his  steed  the  spur."  Sad  is  it  that  such  a 
contrast  was  ever  possible  on  earth,  and  sadder  still  that 
it  may  yet  be  witnessed  even  in  this  enlightened  and  phil- 
anthropic land.  A  writer  in  the  July  number,  1882,  of 
The  Atlantic  Monthly  represents  the  president  of  the 
Wabash  railroad  exhibiting  to  a  group  of  friends  his 
128,000,000  of  Western  Union  stock,  $12,000,000  of 
Missouri  Pacific  stock,  $8,000,000  of  Elevated  railroad 
stocks  and  bonds,  $10,000,000  of  Wabash  common  and 
preferred,  and  some  additional  $20,000,000  invested  in 
various  securities;  and  the  writer  tells  us,  while  this  suc- 
cessful speculator  was  spreading  out  his  millions,  a  day 
laborer  in  the  employ  of  his  company,  whose  wages  had 
been  kept  back  that  a  dividend  might  be  paid  its  members, 
said  to  a  reporter  that  he  and  his  family  were  on  the  verge 
of  starvation ;  and  another,  an  infirm  old  man,  in  reply  to 
questions,  answered,  "  My  rent  is  $6  a  month;  my  groce- 
ries are  $18.  This  leaves  us  $1  a  month  for  clothing, 
medicines  and  other  necessaries.  My  pay  is  $25  a  month, 
and  I  have  to  wait  two  months  for  that."  Surely  the  scene 
in  the  Wood  of  Senart  is  not  more  marked  by  light  and 
shade  than  this.  And  yet  this  is  but  one  example  of  social 
inequality  which  can  easily  and  indefinitely  be  duplicated. 
The  New  York  correspondent  of  the  Troy  Times  pre- 
sents the  following  picture  of  the  extremes  which  make  up 
the  Rembrandt-like  existence  of  our  metropolis: 

Four  women  were  arraigned  in  the  police  court  for  selling  vege- 
tables and  matches  in  baskets  on  the  streets.  One  of  the  number  said 
she  was  a  widow  with  two  children,  and  that  this  was  her  only  sup 
port.  The  magistrate  replied  that  as  it  was  a  violation  of  law  he  was 


THE    WEALTHIEST    AMERICAN    WIDOW.  121 

obliged  to  fine  them  $10  apiece,  and  as  they  were  conveyed  to  the 
prison  one  of  them  fainted. 

Speaking  of  incomes,  Moses  Taylor  is  rated  $400,000  a  year.  He 
has  no  sons  and  his  daughters  are  all  married.  Ex-Governor  Morgan 
is  estimated  at  $500,000  a  year.  Russell  Sage  is  rated  at  a  million  to 
a  million  and  a  half,  while  Jay  Gould's  income  cannot  be  less  than 
half  a  dozen  millions.  To  come  down  to  smaller  men,  R.  L.  Stewart 
has  nearly  a  million  a  year,  while  Robert  and  Ogden  Goelet  are  each 
rated  at  $250,000.  Bennett  is  reckoned  at  $600,000.  I).  O.  Mills 
figures  at  $200,000,  and  the  young  Vanderbilts  (Wm.  K.  and  Cor- 
nelius) are  not  much  below  him.  The  estate  of  A.  T.  Stewart  &  Co. 
has  an  income  of  a  million,  which  renders  Cornelia  Stewart  the 
richest  widow  in  America.  The  Astors  (John  Jacob  and  William) 
are  estimated  each  at  a  million  and  a  half,  while  William  H.  Vander- 
bilt  probably  has  five  times  that  sum ;  and  yet  within  five  minutes' 
walk  of  the  place  where  these  men  live  one  can  find  multitudes  whose 
life  is  but  a  prolonged  battle  with  famine. 

And  while  on  the  subject  of  incomes  it  may  serve  "to 
point  a  moral,"  if  not  "to  adorn  a  tale,"  for  us  to  glance 
at  some  of  those  which  reward  the  endeavors  of  earnest 
toilers.  We  have  alluded  to  the  large  amount  of  money 
Mrs.  Stewart  yearly  receives,  let  us  now  notice  the  wretch- 
edly small  sums  which  some  other  women  have  to  live  on. 
The  facts  which  we  give  are  gathered  and  condensed 
from  a  long  and  carefully  prepared  article  published  in  a 
Chicago  paper.  For  finishing  shirts  women  are  paid  from 
seven  cents  to  ten  cents  a  dozen,  and  for  this  pittance 
they  have  to  put  on  each  garment  four  stays  or  gussets, 
at  least  three  buttons,  and  one  ticket ;  that  is,  for  seven 
cents  they  have  to  sew  in  forty-eight  stays,  and  sew  on 
thirty-six  buttons  and  twelve  cards.  Then  these  workers 
receive  sixty  cents  a  dozen  for  ladies'  calico  sacques,  arti- 
cles which  they  have  themselves  to  cut  out,  and  which 
have  nine  seams  each  and  a  hem  all  round,  with  collar 
and  cuffs  in  addition,  and  some  eight  buttons  and  button- 
holes. Five  cents  apiece,  just  think  of  it,  for  all  this 
labor !  The  persons  who  make  men's  drawers  are  paid 


122  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

forty-five  cents  a  dozen,  for  which  they  sew  three  seams 
in  each  pair,  put  on  a  double  stitched  waistband,  hem  the 
bottoms,  attach  buckles  and  straps  and  two  buttons.  For 
finishing  men's  trousers  they  earn  twelve  cents  a  pair,  and 
an  experienced  hand  can  finish  from  twelve  to  sixteen 
pairs  a  week ;  '  and  for  making  eighteen  cloaks  they 
get  $2.50  when  they  are  ready  to  be  sold.  These  prices 
speak  for  themselves.  They  indicate  that  all  available 
time  must  be  devoted  to  the  special  work  undertaken 
for  enough  money  to  be  earned  to  provide  the  bare  neces- 
sities of  life,  and  that  there  can  scarcely  be  leisure  found 
in  which  to  wash,  scrub,  clean  and  cook. 

From  the  third  annual  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Sta- 
tistics of  Labor  of  Neio  York  for  the  year  1885,  we  gain 
an  insight  into  the  miseries  endured  by  multitudes  of 
these  women,  whose  only  crime  is  poverty.  Commissioner 
Charles  F.  Peck  writes : 

During  one  of  my  visits  to  a  tenement  house  in  New  York 
city  I  inadvertently  entered  a  room  on  the  attic  floor  of  a  wretched 
old  rookeiy  on  Hester  street,  and  found  myself  in  the  midst  of  a  lot 
of  cloakmakers.  The  room  was  possibly  ten  feet  square.  The 
ceiling  was  low  and  slanting,  and  its  only  source  of  light  was  through 
the  begrimed  panes  of  glass  of  a  small  gable  window  opening  out 
from  the  roof.  In  these  cramped  quarters  were  six  women  and  four 
sewing  machines.  Piled  up  on  the  floor  were  stacks  of  cloaks  ready 
to  be  put  together.  The  air  was  stifling  to  one  not  accustomed  to  a 
temperature  well  up  in  the  nineties  and  odoriferous  with  sewer  gases ; 
The  women  were  scantily  clad,  their  hair  was  unkempt,  and  their 
pale,  abject  countenances,  as  they  bent  over  their  work,  formed  a 
picture  of  physical  suffering  and  want  that  I  certainly  had  never 
seen  before  and  trust  that  I  may  never  again  be  compelled  to  look 
upon .  They  were  working  as  if  driven  by  some  unseen  power,  but 
when  I  learned  that  they  were  enabled  to  earn  but  fifty  cents  for 
sixteen  and  perhaps  more  hours'  labor  per  day,  it  needed  no  further 
investigation  to  convince  me  that  the  "unseen  power"  was  the  neces- 
sity of  bread  for  their  own  and  children's  mouths.  The  style  and 
quality  of  the  cloaks-  upon  which  these  women  were  at  work  was  of 
the  latest  and  best.  They  were  lined  with  quilted  satin  or  silk  and 


MISEKIES    OF    CLOAK    MAKERS.  123 

trimmed  with  sealskin  or  other  expensive  material,  and  found  ready 
sale  in  the  largest  retail  stores  in  the  city  at  from  $35  to  $75  each. 
Two  of  these  women  could  manage,  by  long  hours  and  the  most  dili- 
gent application,  to  turn  out  one  cloak  per  day,  and  the  price  they 
received  from  the  contractor,  or  more  probably  "sweater,"  was  $1 — 
fifty  cents  a  piece.  Inquiry  elicited  the  fact  that  the  strong  smell  of 
sewer  gas,  which  seemed  to  permeate  every  crevice  in  the  broken 
plaster  that  still  hung  in  patches  on  the  walls  and  filled  the  room 
with  a  sickening  stench,  came  from  a  sink  in  the  adjoining  apart- 
ment. Curiosity  led  me  to  venture  within  this  "inside"  room.  It 
was  without  ventilation  or  light,  save  that  which  came  through  the 
door  connecting  it  with  the  front  room,  and  it  was  only  after  stand- 
ing several  minutes  that  I  could  distinguish  the  black  lines  of  the 
walls  and  sink  from  which  rose  in  clouds  the  deadly  gas.  Upon  the 
floor  was  spread  a  mattress,  which,  in  appearance,  partook  of  the 
general  filth  to  l>e  found  throughout  the  whole  building,  from  the 
cellar  up;  and  it  was  upon  such  a  bed  and  in  such  quarters  that 
three  cloak-makers,  tired  and  weary  with  the  long  day's  work,  and 
with  scanty,  if  any,  supper,  threw  themselves  down  to  sleep  and 
awaited  the  coming  day's  awful  toil  for  bread .  This  is  not  a  fancy 
picture,  nor  is  it  an  exceptional  case.  Hundreds  of  similar  and  even 
worse  character  are  to  be  found  scattered  through  the  city  of  New 
York. 

One  of  these  unfortunate  victims  of  our  competitive 
and  cheapening  age  affords  us  an  additional  view  of  the 
difficulties  and  hardships  of  American  working  women. 
In  reply  to  a  newspaper  reporter  she  says: 

What  do  ire  eat  ?  0  dear,  not  very  much — not  enough  to  give  one 
the  gout,  I  assure  you.  I  earn  $2.40  a  week,  and  the  rent  of  my 
machine  brings  it  up  to  $2.65.  Out  of  this  I  pay  75  cents  for  rent, 
and  40  cents  for  coal  and  wood,  which  leaves  me  $1.50  for  food, 
clothes,  medicine,  car-fare,  theater  tickets,  and  a  box  at  the  opera. 
Seriously,  though,  I  buy  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of  tea,  a  half-pound  of 
sugar,  one  pound  oatmeal,  one  pint  of  beans,  two  ten-cent  loaves  of 
bread,  one  soupbone,  and  perhaps  it  costs  a  couple  of  cents  a  week 
for  salt,  pepper,  and  herbs  for  my  soup.  I  buy  a  quarter  of  a  pound 
of  butter  a  week,  and  sometimes  I  get  a  little  milk  for  my  tea.  The 
things  I  have  enumerated  generally  form  my  bill  of  fare  for  a  week. 
I  take  tea  and  bread  for  breakfast,  and  have  beef-soup  two  days 
from  one  bone,  and  soup  two  days  from  the  beans.  I  have  tea  and 


124  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

bread  for  supper.  I  forgot  to  say  that  I  buy  half  a  pound  of  liver 
for  Sunday,  and  half  a  pound  of  bacon  some  other  day.  Onte  in  a 
while  I  buy  a  quart  of  potatoes,  which  I  bake  in  the  place  of  the  liver. 
The  oatmeal,  I  forgot  to  mention,  I  cook  and  eat  cold  for  breakfast, 
for  I  cannot  work  hard  all  day  without  something  more  nourishing 
than  tea  and  bread.  I  spend  about  a  $1 .25  for  food,  and  it  costs  me 
four  cents  a  week  for  kerosene .  I  must  save  and  pinch  very  closely 
to  be  able  to  buy  shoes  and  clothes.  Only  that  I  had  some  I  don't 
know  what  I  should  do.  I  don't  know  how  the  other  women  get 
along.  Sometimes  four  and  even  six  club  together  and  pay  room 
rent,  and  they  say  they  find  it  costs  less  for  food;  but  I  am  not  sure 
about  that.  I  never  waste  a  particle  of  food,  and  I  think  if  I  had  it 
I  could  even  eat  more  than  I  do,  and  I  doubt  if  they  get  it  cheaper 
than  I  do . 

As  to  the  groceries — well,  I  think  if  Vanderbilt  had  to  pay  for 
all  the  food  used  in  his  house  at  the  same  ruinous  rates  he  would  be 
bankrupt  in  a  year,  for  the  smaller  you  subdivide  the  articles  the 
more  they  seem  to  cost.  For  instance,  a  pound  of  oatmeal  is  six 
cents,  a  half-pound  costs  you  four;  a  pint  of  beans  is  eight  cents, 
while  a  whole  quart  costs  twelve. 

There  is  something  touchingly  pathetic  in  this  account 
of  a  struggle  for  existence,  and  appallingly  wide  the  gulf 
that  separates  the  women  who  are  doomed  to  it  and  the 
affluent  females  who  idle  away  their  time  in  palatial  man- 
sions on  Fifth  avenue,  and  who  spend  more  each  week  on 
their  poodle  dogs  than  their  wretched  sisters  are  able  to 
earn.  This  gulf  reminds  us  of  another,  quite  impassable, 
too,  for  eternity  has  its  aristocracy  as  well  as  time;  only 
with  the  difference  that  there  Dives  and  Lazarus  have 
changed  places. 

But  sharp  and  sad  as  these  contrasts  are  we  are 
assured  by  various  writers  that  they  are  sharper  and 
sadder  in  Europe  than  in  America.  It  is  claimed  that 
in  other  portions  of  the  world  the  condition  of  the  toiling 
masses  is  not  as  comfortable  as  it  is  here.  By  way  of 
proof  it  is  said  that  in  this  country  only  one  person  in  two 
hundred  and  eighty-five  is  a  pauper,  while  in  England 
there  is  one  in  thirty-five.  Moreover,  John  Bright,  in  his 


THE   OLD    WORLD    AXD   THE    NEW.  125 

Rochdale  speech,  1863,  especially  deplored  the  absence  of 
hope  from  the  heart  of  England's  laboring  multitudes — 
a  regret  that  has  more  recently  been  voiced  by  William 
Morris — while  he  extolled  the  United  States  where  such 
hope  prevails,  as  there  a  career  is  open  to  every  one,  and 
no  one  feels  that  he  is  necessarily  doomed  to  penury  and 
obscurity.  Froude  gives  an  equally  cheerless  picture  of 
the  old  world.  He  says  that  a  million  persons  own  the 
soil  of  Great  Britain,  that  the  House  of  Lords  possesses 
more  than  a  third  of  its  entire  area,  and  that  the  great 
estates  are  continually  devouring  the  small  estates  adjoin- 
ing them.  The  actual  figures  as  given  by  statistical 
authority  are  1,104,9G7  persons  out  of  a  population  num- 
bering over  30,000,000  divide  between  them  in  very 
unequal  portions  51,960,208  acres.  We  can  readily 
understand  how  this  state  of  things  must  discourage  the 
people,  how  it  must  arrest  ambition  and  how  it  must  con- 
tinually lead  to  idleness  and  pauperism.  But  while  it 
may  be  true,  as  is  confidently  affirmed,  that  the  extremes 
of  wretchedness  are  not  as  common  in  America  as  in 
Europe,  nevertheless  even  here  they  are  bad  enough, 
and  very  closely  resemble  in  kind,  if  not  in  degree,  those 
that  prevail  on  the  othei  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  new 
world  seems  to  be  going  beyond  the  old  in  the  matter  of 
vast  estates.  For  instance,  there  are  only  three  persons 
in  England  who  own  over  100,000  acres  each,  and  not  one 
of  them  has  a  property  of  200,000  acres,  and  their  names 
are  the  Duke  of  Cleveland,  Duke  of  Devonshire  and  the 
Duke  of  Northumberland.  But  in  this  favored  land  we 
have  individuals  who  own  700,000  acres,  and  one  or  two 
whose  realty  embraces  upward  of  4,000,000  acres.  There 
are,  however,  not  wanting  signs  that  this  tendency  toward 
concentration  must  soon  reach  its  limit,  and  that  a 
reaction  is-  inevitable.  Doubtless  in  time  both  England 
and  America  will  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  France  and 


126  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

moderate  freeholds  be  the  rule;  but  until  then,  what  trials, 
sufferings  and  losses  must  be  endured  by  a  large  portion 
of  the  population.  These,  too,  will  continue  with  little 
abatement  as  long  as  tenant-farming  prevails  as  exten- 
sively as  it  does  at  present.  If  we  may  believe  Moody, 
there  are  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  these  farms  in  the 
United  States,  or  two  hundred  thousand  more  than  exist 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland;  and  if  we  are  to  credit 
the  figures  of  the  Commissioner  appointed  by  the  North 
American  Review  this  evil  has  attained  portentious  and 
.threatening  dimensions.  We  are  aware  that  his  state- 
ments have  been  called  in  question  and  their  accuracy 
challenged  by  two  writers  in  the  March  number  (1886)  of 
this  leading  monthly,  and  that  consequently  in  the  con 
fusing  array  of  contradictory  estimates  it  is  difficult  to 
arrive  at  an  unassailable  conclusion.  While  Mr.  Moody 
may  exaggerate,  assuredly  the  argument  against  the 
report  of  the  North  American's  Commissioner  is  not 
decisive;  for  its  author  admits  that  we  have  no  means  of 
knowing  the  relative  proportion  of  tenants  today,  and 
that  the  present  drift  of  land  titles  cannot  be  determined 
owing  to  defects  in  the  census  reports  prior  to  1880. 
His  own  position,  possibly,  like  that  of  the  other  party  to 
the  discussion,  is  not  impregnable.  But  be  that  as 
it  may,  this  mischievous  landlordism  is  extensive  enough 
to  awaken  the  liveliest  solicitude.  All  of  the  writers 
we  have  referred  to  deplore  its  rootage  in  our  soil. 
On  this  point  there  is  no  practical  difference  of 
opinion.  We  are  hopeful  that  this  bane  is  to  prove 
transient.  But  who  can  tell?  Certainly  as  long  as 
it  thrives  our  citizens  will  feel  an  increasing  dislike  for 
agricultural  pursuits;  they  will  prefer  their  chances  in 
the  city  to  the  hopelessness  of  the  country,  and  thus 
wretchedness  and  privation  will  be  perpetuated;  and  unless 
a  positive  reform  is  inaugurated  speedily  our  people  in  some 


TENANT   FARMING.  12? 

districts  may  experience  a  fate  similar  to  the  Crofters  of 
Scotland,  many  of  whom  have  been  driven  from  their 
homes  to  provide  wealthy  individuals  with  deer  parks. 
Thus,  then,  while  in  several  respects  this  nation  may  offer, 
as  John  Bright  intimated,  a  more  encouraging  field  to 
the  industrious  poor  than  the  old  world,  there  is,  after  all, 
much  that  is  painfully  alike  in  both.  Here  as  there,  with 
the  growth  of  land  monopolies,  we  have  had  the  crowd- 
ing of  our  cities,  and  the  overcrowding,  too,  with  all 
the  horrors  that  implies.  As  the  Marquis  of  Ailesbury 
and  Lord  Londesborough  have  each  over  50,000  acres, 
and  have  that  extent  of  room  in  which  to  breathe  and 
exercise,  so  the  barons  of  our  Plutocracy  possess,  or  can 
possess,  an  equal  area  for  their  refreshment  and  delight  ; 
and  per  contra,  as  thousands  of  wretched  beings  on  for- 
eign shores  are  huddled  together  in  close,  stifling  rooms, 
where  reeking,  malodorous  filth  pollutes  and  poisons,  so 
on  these;  especially  in  New  York,  where,  as  we  are  told, 
one  hundred  thousand  human  beings  are  packed  and 
crammed  together  within  the  limits  of  one  square  mile. 
And  here  as  in  other  countries,  there  are  thousands  upon 
thousands  who  are  compelled  to  pay  the  highest  price  for 
the  articles  they  consume,  who  have  not  enough  money  to 
purchase  decency,  and  who  have  no  reason  to  anticipate 
anything  but  hunger,  cold  and  death.  Many  are  like  the 
unfortunate  woman  described  by  Charlotte  Bronte  in  the 
pathetic  lines: 

And  oh !  full  oft,  quite  spent  and  weary, 
Her  hand  will  pause,  her  head  decline; 

That  labor  seems  so  hard  and  dreary 
On  which  no  ray  of  hope  may  shine. 

And  while  these  toiling  and  oftentimes  suffering 
poor  are  inadequately  provided  for,  near  by,  as  in  Lon- 
don and  Paris,  are  hundreds  who  own  larger  houses  than 
they  can  occupy,  many  more  millions  than  they  can  spend, 


128  STUDIES   IN"  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

and  who  have  a  superabundance  of  all  things  which  can 
add  pleasure  and  zest  to  life. 

Not  uncommonly  the  recital  of  these  dolorous  dis- 
tinctions is  resented  by  those  whose  lot  is  happily  cast  in 
the  sunshine,  as  tending  to  faulty  estimates  of  our  times. 
These  persons  have  no  reason  to  be  dissatisfied,  and  they 
cannot  imagine  why  any  one  else  should  be.  In  their 
opinion  the  evils  of  Society  are  exaggerated  by  a  class  of 
sentimentalists  like  Kingsley,  Carlyle  and  .  Ruskin,  who 
are  nothing  if  not  rhetorical.  Carried  away  by  their  feel- 
ings such  writers  as  these,  it  is  claimed,  misrepresent  the 
actual  condition  of  affairs  by  coloring  too  highly  and  luridly 
the  misfortunes  of  a  portion  of  the  community.  Un- 
doubtedly, it  is  allowed,  they  are  actuated  by  philanthropic 
motives ;  but  they  are  too  emotional  to  give  a  reliable 
account  of  what  they  see,  and  too  poetic  for  their  judg- 
ments to  pass  unchallenged.  Perhaps  it  is  not  unnatural 
for  the  prospered  and  favored  to  think  in  this  way  of  those 
who  try  to  render  vivid  the  sorrowful  extremes  of  modern 
life;  but  they  are  radically  wrong  in  supposing  that 
preachers,  art-lecturers  and  prose-poets  are  the  only  ones 
who  do  so.  This  is  not  the  case.  Cool-headed  and  far- 
seeing  statesmen,  and  well-informed  political  economists, 
substantially  corroborate  and  confirm  all  that  has  been 
written  regarding  the  woeful  condition  of  the  masses  by 
the  most  sympathetic  and  partial  of  their  friends.  The 
most  thoughtful  and  the  least  impressible  among  the  men 
who  mold  public  opinion  agree  in  expressing  the  con- 
viction that,  however  the  toiling  multitudes  may  have 
been  benefited  by  recent  civilization,  they  certainly  have 
not  been  benefited  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  pro- 
duction, nor  commensurate  with  the  share  they  have  had 
in  developing  the  extraordinary  riches  of  the  age.  On 
this  point  let  us  hear  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  February  14,  1843,  spoke  in  these  terms: 


GLADSTONE  AKD,  FAWCETT.  129 

It  is  one  of  the  sad  sides  of  the  present  social  order  in  our  land 
that  the  steady  increase  of  wealth  of  the  upper  classes  and  the  accu- 
mulation of  capital  should  be  attended  with  a  diminution  in  the 
people's  power  of  consumption,  and  with  a  larger  amount  of  priva- 
tion and  suffering  among  the  poor. 

The  same  idea  he  repeated  April  16,  1863.  His  words 
then  were: 

From  the  year  1842  to  1853  the  receipts  from  the  income  tax  in- 
creased six  per  cent  in  England,  and  from  1853  to  1861  twenty  per 
cent.  It  is  an  astonishing  fact,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  this 
prodigious  increase  of  wealth  benefited  solely  the  well-to-do  classes. 

And  Henry  Fawcett  (Essays  and  Lectures]  echoes  in 
effect  the  same  representation  when  he  writes: 

Production  has  increased  quite  beyond  the  most  sanguine  hopes, 
and  yet  the  day  when  the  workman  shall  obtain  a  large  share  of  this 
increase  seems  as  far  distant  as  ever,  and  in  his  miserable  abode  the 
struggle  against  want  and  misery  is  as  hard  as  it  ever  was.  The 
result  of  this  is  to  create  a  feeling  of  profound  hostility  to  the  funda- 
mental principles  on  which  society  is  based. 

These  are  strong  and  startling  testimonies,  and  quite 
as  radical  as  any  penned  by  the  so-called  "impracticals." 
What  Mr.  Fawcett  means  when  he  says,  that  the  distance 
of  the  workman  from  the  fruit  of  his  toil  "creates  a  pro- 
found feeling  of  hostility  to  the  fundamental  principles  on 
which  Society  is  based/'  has  been  illustrated  by  the  prefer- 
ence avowed  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  who,  though  usually 
calm  and  dispassionate,  has  recorded  it  in  this  vigorous 
manner: 

If,  therefore,  the  choice  were  to  be  made  betweeen  Communism, 
with  all  its  chances,  and  the  present  state  of  society,  with  all  its  suf- 
ferings and  injustices — if  the  institution  of  private  property  necessa- 
rily carried  with  it,  as  a  consequence,  that  the  produce  of  labor  shall 
be  apportioned,  as  we  now  see  it,  almost  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  the 
labor,  the  largest  portion  to  those  who  have  never  worked  at  all,  the 
next  largest  to  those  whose  work  is  almost  nominal,  and  so  in  a 
descending  scale,  the  remuneration  dwindling  as  the  work  grows 
9 


130  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

harder  and  more  disagreeable,  until  the  most  fatiguing  and  cxlumst- 
ing  bodily  labor  cannot  count  with  certainty  on  being  able  to  earn 
even  the  necessaries  of  life — if  this  or  Communism  were  the  alter- 
native, all  the  difficulties,  great  or  small,  of  Communism  would  be  as 
dust  in  the  balance. — Principles,  b.  ii,  c.  i,  §  3. 

What  more  has  the  most  emotional  writers,  or  the  most 
excited  of  modern  agitators,  ever  said  ?  This  language 
certainly  justifies  the  dark  picture  we  have  drawn  of 
social  extremes,  and  used  by  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Mill  dispels 
the  notion  entertained  by  easy-going,  comfortable  and 
self-complacent  souls,  that  we  are  given  to  wholesale  and 
reckless  exaggerations. 

But  we  have  not  yet  exhausted  the"  list  of  inequalities 
which  are  a  disgrace  to  this  enlightened  age.  Those 
already  described,  bad  as  they  are,  are  not  the  only  ones, 
and  probably  are  not  the  worst.  There  are  others  which 
grow  out  of  these,  and  which  are  not  easily  characterized; 
but  perhaps  an  illustration  or  two  will  make  them 
plain.  We  read  not  long  since  that  a  Glasgow  bank 
director,  convicted  of  having  appropriated  something  like 
a  half-million  sterling,  was  sentenced  to  eight  months  im- 
prisonment; and  that  on  the  same  day  a  little,  half -starved 
boy,  charged  with  stealing  a  cake  worth  half  a  penny,  was 
sentenced  to  fourteen  days  hard  labor  and  four  years  in  a 
reformatory.  This  is  English  justice;  and  another  speci- 
men of  its  blindness  in  the  case  of  abject  poverty  was 
reported  in  a  recent  journal.  The  journal  states  that 
a  man  seventy  years  of  age,  paralyzed  in  speech  and 
limbs,  was  sentenced  for  begging  to  three  months  hard 
labor,  but  that  death  happily  interposed  and  saved  him 
from  the  penalty.  It  is  likewise  chronicled  by  Thomas 
Wright,  in  his  book  entitled  Our  New  Masters,  that 
when  in  England  an  effort  was  made  to  put  in  force  an" 
"unrepealed  statute  of  that  godly  monarch,  Charles  the 
Second,  which  made  it  an  offense  at  law  for  any  man  to 


JUSTICE   AND   INJUSTICE.  131 

ply  'his  ordinary  avocation  on  a  Sunday/'  sundry  coster- 
mongers  and  itinerant  venders  of  water-cresses,  periwinkles 
and  other  cheap  articles  favored  by  the  poor  were  arrested 
and  convicted  ;  but  that  the  coachmen  of  the  lord  mayor 
and  the  Marquis  of  Lome  were  not  condemned,  though 
guilty  of  pursuing  their  calling  on  that  day,  as  rigor  in 
their  case  would  have  annoyed  their  affluent  masters. 
Discriminations  of  this  kind,  however,  are  not  confined  to 
England.  They  are  frequent  in  all  civilized  lands,  and 
are  not  uncommon  in  our  own.  When  in  New  York  an 
attempt  was  made  to  enforce  the  Sabbath  ordinance  it 
was,  as  in  London,  newsdealers,  bootblacks,  and  others 
who  earn  a  precarious  living  who  were  the  sufferers,  while 
the  well-to-do  persons  who  violated  the  law  were  permitted 
to  go  scot-free.  Thoughtful  people  have  grown  distrustful 
of  justice  in  these  United  States ;  for  they  cannot  help 
but  see  how  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  it  is  to  convict  a 
man  who  has  ample  resources.  He  may  be  a  murderer 
and  a  villain  who  has  wronged  widows  and  orphans  out  of 
their  possessions,  but  if  he  only  has  money  enough  he  can 
generally  laugh  at  the  hangman  and  defy  the  penitentiary. 
A  pauper  who  should  be  guilty  of  such  crimes  would  very 
speedily  be  made  an  example  of,  to  deter  other  beggars 
like  himself  from  imitating  their  superiors.  If  a  sewing- 
woman  is  defrauded  by  her  employer,  if  wages  are  not 
paid  to  workmen  according  to  agreement,  if  contracts  are 
broken,  and  if  laboring  people  are  slandered  and  abused, 
redress  they  practically  have  none.  They  can't  afford  to 
go  to  the  courts  with  their  case  ;  they  know  that  justice  is 
a  marketable  commodity,  and  that  it  is  a  luxury  far 
beyond  their  means,  and  so  they  must  submit  to  the 
inevitable.  Hence  it  is  that  an  ugly  saying  is  on  many  lips, 
a  saying  that  is  a  discredit  to  republican  institutions — 
"  that  there  is  one  law  for  the  rich  and  another  for  the 
poor";  and  so  it  is,  for,  though  aH  classes  exist  under  the 


132  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

same  code,  its  execution  is  not  directed  impartially,  and 
seems  to  be  governed  by  no  principle  of  exact  and  unvary- 
ing jtistice.  This  condition  of  things  is  horrible  and 
humiliating.  While,  Emile  De  Lavelye  has  pointed 
out,  it  is  superior  to  that  of  the  middle  ages,  when  the 
serf  suffered  from  the  violence  and  brutality  of  great 
lords  whose  tyranny  was  rarely  checked  by  the  State,  till 
it  is  fearful  and  appalling,  demanding  immediate  atten- 
tion and  efficient  remedies. 

But  what  ought  to  be  done  ?  Let  us  see  if  we  can 
discover. 

The  most  radical  answer  comes  from  Socialism,  and  as 
that  theory  is  the  most  conspicuous  and  belligerent  of  any 
now  before  the  world,  it  has  the  first  claim  on  our  atten- 
tion, and  ought  to  have  the  first  place  in  this  discussion. 
We  recognize  this  priority,  and  shall  therefore  examine 
its  premises,  weigh  its  assurances,  and  determine  whether 
at  heart  it  has  the  promise  of  genuine  equality,  or  is 
entirely  mischievous  and  misleading.  At  the  outset  of 
this  inquiry  we  perceive  a  difficulty  which  we  may  not  be 
able  to  escape.  We  refer  to  certain  very  extreme  views 
which  are  held  by  Socialists;  rejected  indeed  by  some,  but 
by  others  regarded  as  essential  features  of  their  creed. 
They  can  hardly  be  overlooked  in  a  definition  without 
offense,  neither  can  they  be  introduced  without  a  protest. 
In  this  dilemma  the  best  course  will  be  to  ascertain  what 
is  common  to  the  word  ''Socialism"  as  used  by  all  its 
contending  partisans,  then  glance  in  the  course  of  our 
argument  at  its  variations,  and  so  arrive  at  a  judgment  as 
to  whether  its  principles  are  of  any  value  to  the  community 
or  not. 

Fundamentally  the  term  under  consideration  denotes 
"Mutualism"  in  contradistinction  to  egoistic  "individ- 
ualism," and  suggests  the  thought  that  oneness  of  spirit 
and  companionship  in  effort  are  indispensable  to  the 


SOCIALISM   DEFINED.  133 

amelioration  of  Society.  This,  let  us  bear  in  mind,  is  pri- 
marily a  Gospel  conception,  and  against  it  no  valid  ob- 
jection can  be  brought.  We  read  in  the  New  Testament 
that  we  are  to  bear  one  another's  burdens  and  so  to  fulfill 
the  law  of  Christ.  Love  is  there  enjoined  as  the  bond  of 
perfectness,  and  as  the  source  of  hope.  The  rich  are  there 
described  as  the  stewards  of  God,  as  his  servants  intrusted 
with  material  treasures,  not  to  be  lavished  on  themselves, 
but  to  be  conscientiously  employed  for  the  advantage  of 
the  unfortunate  and  destitute.  Such  an  ideal  of 'brother- 
hood as  this  is  surely  beyond  criticism,  and  were  it  really 
supreme  in  the  practical  affairs  of  the  world  social  con- 
ditions would  in  a  large  measure  be  equalized;  for  then 
there  would  be  more  unity  and  less  separateness,  more 
cooperation  and  less  competition,  and  there  would  be  more 
justice  and  less  injustice.  If  this  is  all  that  is  meant  by 
Socialism,  every  soul  ought  to  glory  in  being  classed  with 
its  supporters;  and  if  this  is  all,  then  Jesus  Christ  himself 
was  its  truest  exponent  and  indeed  was  its  founder.  He 
lived  for  others,  gave  himself  for  others,  died  for  others, 
and  entreated  others  to  imitate  his  example.  Dim .  vision 
of  this  relation  of  the  Jewish  peasant-prophet  to  social 
regeneration  had  some  of  the  Parisian  Communists  in  1850. 
In  some  of  their  halls  might  then  be  seen  the  picture  of 
that  sacred  form,  and  underneath  this  significant  inscrip- 
tion, "First  Eepresentative  of  the  People."  They  felt 
that  in  a  real  sense  he  was  allied  to  them,  that  he,  too, 
desired  the  emancipation  of  humanity,  and  though  they 
did  not  see  how  different  their  plans  were  from  his,  they 
yet  looked  up  to  him  as  their  friend  and  leader.  Like  the 
Master  and  in  the  same  way,  all  who  are  in  truth  his  fol- 
lowers have  at  heart  the  common  weal,  and  hence  if  this  is 
all  the  Socialistic  name  imports,  as  Prondhon  intimates  it 
is,  then  are  they  entitled  to  bear  it,  and  none  more  entitled 
than  they.  Be  it  understood  then,  we  have  no  controversy 


134  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

with  this  use  of  the  word.  But,  as  we  all  must  be  aware, 
it  is  not  usually  employed  in  this  loose  and  general  way. 
It  commonly,  and  always  when  persons  are  trying  to  speak 
accurately,  stands  for  a  particular  school  of  Economical 
Science,  a  school  which,  if  we  may  credit  Deputy  Joerg  in 
the  German  Parliament,  has  been  making  extraordinary 
progress  during  the  past  few  years.  The  peculiarities  of 
this  sect  are,  first,  Mutualism;  secondly,  Mutualism,  not  in 
spirit  and  effort  only,  but  with  more  or  less  completeness, 
in  property  and  remuneration;  and,  thirdly,  Mutualism 
carried  into  effect  through  the  medium  of  law,  or  in  other 
words,  arranged  and  maintained  by  government.  This 
definition  we  have  purposely  made  as  broad  as  possible  con- 
sistent with  faithfulness,  so  as  to  afford  a  place  for  every 
variety  and  phase  of  thought  which  legitimately  may  claim 
to  be  embraced  in  it.  Socialism  as  thus  understood,  not 
as  a  spirit,  but  as  a  method,  we  cannot  but  regard  as  open 
to  serious  objections,  which  ought  to  be  carefully  pondered 
before  its  principles  are  finally  avowed. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  this  system  is  no  novelty 
born  of  modern  radicalism,  but  has  come  down  to  us  from 
a  respectable  antiquity.  It  appeared  during  the  decline 
of  Hellenism,  and  again  when  the  Roman  Republic  was 
tottering  to  its  overthrow.  Roscher  says,  "  The  speeches 
of  the  Gracchi,  and  in  a  far  ruder  fashion,  the  conspiracy 
of  Catiline,  remind  us  of  the  catch  works  of  modern  Social- 
ism." Moreover,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  whenever 
Society  has  been  unusually  depraved,  divided,  distressed, 
many  earnest  philanthropists  have  looked  to  this  "ism" 
for  relief,  and  even  some  Christians  have  apparently  re- 
garded it  with  favor.  There  is  something  of  the  faubourg 
Communist  in  John  Chrysostom  when  he  declares  that  it 
would  be  preferable  for  all  things  to  be  in  common ;  and 
we  almost  seem  to  be  near  the  Paris  barricades  of  1848,  or 
in  the  Hotel  de  Ville  during  the  siege  of  1871,  when  we 


ANCIEXT  SOCIALISM.  135 

hear  the  pious  Jerome  exclaiming,  "  Opulence  is  always 
the  result  of  theft,"  and  the  saintly  Clement  arguing  that 
"if  justice  were  enforced  there  would  be  a  general  division 
of  property,  private  possession  being  an  iniquitous  thing." 
This  language  warrants  the  inference  that  these  brethren 
had  a  good  degree  of  confidence  in  the  principle  of  "Mu- 
tualism" as  an  antidote  for  public  ills.  Perhaps  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  feel  otherwise,  having  the  example 
of  the  Apostolic  Church  before  them,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, where  everything  had  been  in  common.  It  was 
natural  that  they  should  regard  with  approval  the  exten- 
sion of  a  practice  which  for  a  time  at  least  had  worked 
very  admirably.  But  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  what 
was  done  by  the  disciples  at'  Jerusalem  was  done  volun- 
tarily. No  one  compelled  them  to  do  as  they  did,  particu- 
larly the  State  did  not  coerce  them.  Is  it  not,  therefore, 
very  likely  that  these  venerable  men  when  they  advocated 
a  general  division  of  property  had  in  view  a  voluntary  sur- 
render, and  not  a  government  confiscation  ?  From  Avhat 
is  known  of  them  it  is  not  probable  that  they  would  have 
gone  as  far  as  some  do  now,  and  have  recommended  that 
the  possessions  of  the  rich  should  be  taken  by  so-called 
process  of  law,  and  be  conferred  on  those  who  very  likely 
would  not  know  how  to  keep  them.  These  Christian 
fathers,  in  our  judgment,  had  no  more  intention  of  teach- 
ing such  a  doctrine  as  this  than  Bossuet  had  when  in  his 
sermon  on  The  Dignity  of  the  uhurch'a  Poor  he  gave 
expression  to  the  following  radical  sentiments  : 

"I  came,"  says  the  Saviour,  "  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor." 
Emnydisare  pauperibus  misit  me.  The  rich  are  tolerated  if  they 
assist  the  poor.  In  the  primitive  church  everything  was  in  common, 
so  that  none  should  be  guilty  of  leaving  another  in  want .  For  what 
injustice,  my  brethren,  that  the  poor  should  bear  the  full  burden, 
that  the  whole  weight  of  misery  should  fall  on  their  shoulders !  If 
they  complain  and  murmur  against  Divine  providence — Lord  !  let  me 
say  it — it  is  not  without  some  appearance  of  justice ;  for  as  We  are  all 


130  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

made  in  the  same  fashion  and  there  is  but  little  difference  between 
niud  and  mud,  why  do  we  see  on  one  side  joy,  honor  and  affluence, 
and  on  the  other  sorrow  and  despair,  excessive  want,  and  often,  too, 
thraldom  and  contempt. 

But  though  it  is  not  probable  that  these  reverend 
fathers  were  Socialists  of  the  type  conspicuous  in  various 
countries  to-day,  they  yet  afford  an  interesting  illustration 
of  the  tendency  common  in  almost  every  age  to  seek  refuge 
in  some  form  of  "Mutualism"  from  the  wrongs  and  woes 
of  life.  As  it  has  been,  so  is  it  now.  Sign  this,  many 
persons  may  suppose,  that  current  anarchical  theories  if 
applied  would  indeed  renovate  and  bless  Society.  So  we 
might  hope,  were  it  not  that  experiments  in  this  direction 
have  never  been  remarkably  successful,  and  have  never  in 
any  perceptible  degree  diminished  the  sum  of  human 
sorrow.  This  has  been  unhappily  proven  over  and  over 
again,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Millenarians,  Cenobites, 
Begging  .Friars,  Taborites,  Levellers,  and  what  is  more 
to  our  purpose,  in  that  of  the  French  labor  organization 
of  1848,  when  the  effort  to  establish  government  work- 
shops and  regulate  capital  thnist  100,000  unemployed 
men  on  the  streets  of  Paris.  Yet  in  the  face  of  multiplied 
failures  along  this  line,  thousands  of  intelligent  people  are 
apparently  anxious  to  repeat  on  a  much  larger  scale  the 
mistakes  of  the  past.  They  still  imagine  that  Socialism 
and  the  Millenium  are  synonymous  terms,  and  that  the 
adoption  of  the  system  described  by  the  former  would 
assuredly  introduce  the  state  symbolized  by  the  latter. 
This  childlike  confidence  is  doubtless  to  be  admired,  but  it 
is  no  pledge  or  guaranty  that  it  will  ever  be  justified.  The 
constantly  recurring  appeal  to  that  which  has  never  yet 
done  anything  to  inspire  trust  is  no  evidence  that  it  has 
"the  promise  and  potency"  of  a  brighter  future  at  its 
heart;  but  is  rather  the  humilating  proof  of  man's 
blunders  and  discouragements,  which,  in  spite  of  his 


SOCIALISTIC   FAILURES.  137 

better  judgement,  drive  him  to  a  political  faith  whose 
special  and  only  distinct  attraction  is  that  it  antagonizes 
with  and  threatens  to  destroy  the  present  prevailing 
creed,  from  the  operations  of  which  he  continually  suffers, 
and  for  the  defects  of  which  he  has  been  unable  to  pro- 
vide a  remedy.  It  is  simply  another  instance  of  a  "  for- 
lorn hope  " — something  like  the  case  of  a  sailer  who  heads 
his  ship  toward  the  rocks,  though  every  other  vessel  that 
has  been  steered  in  that  direction  has  gone  to  pieces,  be- 
cause he  cannot  see  how  to  weather  the  storm,  or  how  to 
live  in  it;  and  because  he  is  wearied  and  disheartened 
and  desperately  thinks  that  he  had  better  risk  the  peril 
than  remain  as  he  is.  The  rocks  may  prove  more  hospit- 
able than  the  troubled  ocean;  and  in  existing  circumstan- 
ces, he  knows  not  what  else  to  do. 

Yet  better  do  almost  anything  else  than  this.  Yes, 
"better  bear  the  ills  we  have  than  fly  to  others  that  we 
know  not  of";  or,  as  the  quotation  is  not  quite  apt,  "to 
others,"  which,  from  the  knowledge  we  already  have  of 
them,  John  Stuart  Mill  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding, 
must  prove  infinitely  more  disastrous  than  any  we  are 
now  called  on  to  endure.  We  do  not  think  that  we  are 
doing  Socialism  an  injustice  by  this  seemingly  harsh  state- 
ment; for  the  closer  we  scrutinize  its  teachings,  and  the 
nearer  we  come  to  its  advocates,  the  more  deeply  we  are 
impressed  with  its  eminent  unfitness  to  reform  the  institu- 
tions of  the  age.  Its  charm  lies  wholly  on  the  surface  and 
is  exceedingly  superficial.  The  head  and  the  soul  of  it 
are  thoroughly  deranged,  and  are  totally  at  fault  in  their 
plans  and  their  expectations.  Nay,  more,  we  are  per- 
suaded that  this  conviction  will  be  shared  even  by  the 
skeptical,  if  they  will  only  take  the  trouble  to  examine 
the  disclosures  made  in  various  lands  and  by  different 
parties  of  its  real  character  and  influence.  In  aid- 
ing all  interested  in  this  subject  to  perform  so  necessary 


138  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

a  work  we  would  recall  for  a  moment  the  unfavorable 
estimate  of  its  worth  created  by  some  of  its  historic  devel- 
opments. Roscher  writes:  "A  social  revolution  of  the 
most  fearful  kind,  by  which  a  great  part  of  all  private 
property  passed  into  the  hands  of  those  who  hitherto 
had  had  no  possessions  (the  soldiers),  and  knew  not 
how  to  administer  it,  happened  twice  during  the  Roman 
Republic,  viz,  under  Sylla  and  the  second  Triumvirate." 
The  language  which  he  here  employs  to  describe  this 
revolution  is  fully  justified  by  the  annals  of  the  period 
referred  to.  It  was,  indeed,  "of  the  most  fearful  kind," 
carrying  dismay  and  distress  to  thousands,  and  failing  at 
almost  every  point  to  accomplish  permanent  good.  But 
if  we  come  nearer  to  our  own  times  and  study  the 
effects  of  this  "political  superstition,"  as  it  was  preached 
by  Thomas  Miinzer  in  Germany,  with  its  motto  "  omnia 
simul  comrnunia,"  we  shall  see  in  the  bloody  and  licentious 
saturnalia  of  Westphalia — in  which,  however,  the  prophet 
had  no  part,  as  happily  for  his  own  sake  he  had  been 
beheaded  before  it  was  inaugurated,  but  which  was  a 
legitimate  outcome  of  his  radical  doctrine — an  illustration 
of  its  perniciousness  and  destructiveness.  Nor  do  we 
receive  a  more  favorable  impression  of  its  value  from 
its  pe<?uliar  and  vigorous  growth  on  French  soil.  In 
1782  Brissot  de  Warville  originated  the  phrase,  afterward 
employed  by  Proudhon,  Propriete  c'est  le  vol;  and  in  the 
name  of  equality,  we  suppose,  commended  the  temporary 
union  of  sexes  which  prevails  among  animalistic  tribes, 
Babceuf  in  1796  headed  a  wretched  conspiracy  in  behalf  of 
a  community  of  goods  and  of  labor.  One  Sylvain  Marechal 
also,  exclaimed,  "We -wish  real  equality  or  death.  The 
French  revolution  is  only  the  precursor  of  another  much 
greater,  more  solemn  and  the  final  one.  Let  all  the  arts 
perish  if  need  be,  provided  real  equality  remains  for  us. 
*  *  *  No  more  individual  property  in  lands.  The  land 


HERE   MOST.  139 

belongs  to  no  person.  We  demand,  we  seek  the  common 
enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  the  soil.  The  fruits  are  for  all 
the  world."  This  fanatic  undoubtedly  expressed  the  real 
spirit  of  Communism  in  the  stormful  times  of  Napoleon, 
and  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  it  has  grown 
more  conservative  in  this  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Indeed,  a  representative  of  this  delusion  from 
Germany  has  in  various  ways  indicated  its  substantial 
agreement  with  opinions  loudly  proclaimed  a  hundred 
years  ago  in  Europe.  We  reproduce  a  conversation  pub- 
lished in  the  New  York  World  between  a  reporter  and 
Herr  Most,  the  party  referred  to,  and  who  is^  not  inappro- 
priately called  "THE  APOSTLE  OF  AXARCHY."  This 
conversation  will  not  only  give  to  the  reader  a  clear  con- 
ception of  what  Socialism  is,  but  will  establish  its  consan- 
guinity with  theories  as  old  as  the  dreams  of  Plato.  The 
interview  proceeds  in  this  manner: 

"Herr  Most,  to  what  school  of  socialists  do  you  belong  ?" 

"  I  believe  in  the  theory  of  the  Carl  Marx  school  and  the  practice 
of  tactics  of  the  anarchists.  I  am  a  thorough  believer  in  the  com- 
mune." 

"  What  is  communism  ?" 

'•  I  should  give  you  a  book  to  answer  that  question.  Commu- 
nism is  the  ownership  of  everything  by  everybody.  For  instance, 
take  all  the  ironworkers  in  the  country — workmen,  superintendents, 
agents — every  one  connected  with  iron.  Well,  they  should  own  all 
the  works  and  all  the  iron.  There  should  be  no  capitalists,  no  men 
for  whom  other  men  work.  The  land  of  the  country  should  be 
owned  by  the  people,  the  manufactures  by  those  interested  in  them. 
If  all  the  people  work,  very  little  work  by  each  man  will  be  enough. 
Each  man  should  have  an  equal  interest  in  the  production  of  all,  and 
all  should  have  an  interest  in  the  work  of  each  one." 

"  How  could  the  commune  get  the  necessary  capital  for  such  a 
state  of  things?" 

"As  the  workmen  to-day  are  only  paid  enough  to  keep  body  and 
soul  together,  they  can  never  raise  the  capital  themselves.  But  if 
the  socialists  once  get  political  power  they  will  confiscate  the  money 


140  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

now  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalists  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  society. 
That  is  communism  —  the  only  just  political  arrangement." 

"  Suppose  that  communism  existed  and  you  and  I  were  working. 
Suppose  you  chose  to  work  harder  than  I  worked,  would  you  get 
more  money  ?  " 

"That  is  one  of  the  great  difficulties.  My  parly  believe  that 
pure  communism  would  embrace  the  rights  of  the  minority  as  well 
as  those  of  the  majority.  If  the  minority  worked  harder  than  the 
majority,  then  they  would  have  more.  Why  not?  Why  could 
there  not  be  two  societies,  the  majority  and  the  minority,  each  having 
its  own  ?  " 

"But  that  does  not  answer  my  question.  Suppose  you  worked 
harder ;  you  have  always  been  a  hardworking  man,  I  believe  ?  " 

"  I  have  always  worked  hard." 

"Well,  then,  suppose  you  worked  harder  than  I  did,  would  you 
IHJ  a  minority  of  one  —  would  you  get  more  money  than  what  came  to 
me  ?  " 

"Why  should  I  work  harder  than  you  ?  If  I  have  all  that  I 
want  and  know  that  my  children  would  be  educated  by  the  state  or 
by  society,  why  should  I  work  hard  ?  " 

"  But  suppose  that  you  did,  in  spite  of  all  the  reasons  you  would 
have  for  not  doing  so,  would  you  get  more  money  ?  In  other  words, 
would  the  reward  for  effort  under  the  commune  be  in  proportion  to 
the  effort  ?  " 

"As  I  said,  that  is  one  of  the  difficulties  about  which  the  leaders 
in  the  movement  are  not  decided.  It  is  a  detail  which  can  be  settled 
by  and  by  when  the  commune  is  established,  and  I  cannot  answer 
the  question  yet." 

"Does  the  section  of  the  socialists  to  which  you  belong  believe 
in  assassination  ?  " 

"That  is  another  very  difficult  question.  Take  the  case  of 
Russia.  One  man's  will  governs  eighty  or  ninety  millions  of  people. 
Should  that  man  be  insane  or  peevish  or  bad  tempered  he  can  cause- 
untold  suffering.  He  can  get  up  in  the  morning  and  order  ten 
thousand  people  exiled  to  Siberia.  Such  a  man  is  a  monster,  and  I 
believe  that  a  monster  should  be  put  to  death,  whether  lie  has  two 
legs,  four  legs,  or  six  legs.  I  think  that  the  killing  of  the  czar  was 
an  act  of  justice,  and  that  it  should  not  be  called  assassination,  but 
self-defense.  Think  of  the  misery  that  man  caused.  If  he  could 
have  died  a  hundred  times  it  would  not  have  been  a  tithe  of  what  he 
deserved," 


THE   APOSTLE   OF  ANARCHY.  141 

"To  go  a  step  further,  is  assassination  justifiable  in  a  constitu- 
tional government?" 

"  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  you  mean." 

"Suppose  the  socialists  wished  to  overturn  the  government  of 
England.  Suppose  that  the  queen  was  killed  to-morrow,  the  prince 
of  Wales  the  next  day,  his  eldest  son  the  next,  and  that  is  kept  up 
for  ten  days.  At  the  end  of  that  time  it  would  be  safe  to  say  there 
would  be  no  persons  willing  to  accept  the  crown  of  England. 
Would  such  a  thing  be  justifiable  from  a  socialistic  standpoint?" 

"  Such  a  series  of  killing  would  be  an  impossibility." 

"Of  course  it  would  be  impossible;  but  if  it  were  possible, 
would  it  be  justifiable?  In  other  words,  do  the  socialists  think  ter- 
rorism a  justifiable  weapon  to  use?" 

"  Terrorism  such  a-s  you  describe  would  be  justifiable  if  the 
socialists  could  through  it  obtain  power.  Anything  is  justifiable  by 
means  of  which  the  commune  could  be  established." 

These  sentiments  recall  a  scene  in  Shakespeare's  play  of 
Henry  VI,  ii  Part.  Referring  to  the  insurrection  under 
Jack  Cade  the  dramatist  represents  a  messenger  as  saying 
of  the  rebels: 

All  scholars,  lawyers,  courtiers,  gentlemen, 
They  call  false  caterpillars,  and  intend  their  death. 

Then  into  the  mouth  of  Cade  himself,  to  whom  it  is 
likely  tho  poet  has  not  done  historic  justice,  he  puts  the 
Avords; 

I  thank  you,  good  people;  there  shall  be  no  money;  all  shall  eat 
and  drink  on  my  score,  and  I  will  apparel  them  all  in  one  livery,  that 
they  may  agree  like  brothers,  and  worship  me,  their  lord. 

Precisely  so.  Somebody  must  be  lord.  There  must 
be  administration,  and  hence  masters  and  sub- masters, 
and  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  Jack  Cade  or  Herr  Most 
covets  the  dignity.  Proudhon  shows  that  we  inevitably 
would  have  a  new  form  of  the  old  evil  were  we  to  adopt 
the  programme  of  Cade  and  his  sympathizers;  for  in  the 
radical  changes  which  it  proposes,  "  inequality  would 
spring  from  placing  mediocrity  on  a  level  with  excellence." 


142  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

Such  a  "damaging  equation,"  as  he  terms  it,  "would 
simply  pull  down  those  who  are  up,  without  lifting  up 
those  who  are  down."  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  pamphlet 
entitled  Man  versus  The  State,  indicates  that  the  poet 
is  not  very  far  out  of  the  way  in  his  picture  of  what  the 
ambitious  leader  of  social  levelism  states  so  bluntly. 
"  Our  Synthetic  Philosopher,"  as  Mr.  Spencer  has  been 
called,  argues,  and  that,  too,  very  conclusively,  that  the 
Socialistic  movement,  instead  of  equalizing,  would  inevit- 
ably tend  toward  slavery.  On  this  point  we  have  already 
quoted  Mr.  Spencer  when  examining  the  sources  of  prog- 
ress; but  there  is  another  passage  of  the  same  general 
tenor  which  may  be  read  with  profit. 

What  is  essential  to  the  idea  of  a  slave?  We  primarily  think  of 
him  as  one  who  is  owned  by  another.  To  be  more  than  nominal, 
however,  the  ownership  must  be  shown  by  control  of.  the  slave's 
actious — a  control  which  is  habitually  for  the  benefit  of  the  con- 
troller. That  which  fundamentally  distinguishes  the  slave  is  that  he 
labors  under  coercion  to  satisfy  another's  desires.  The  relation 
admits  of  sundry  gradations.  *  *  * 

If  all  the  slave's  labor  is  for  his  owner  the  slavery  is  heavy,  and  if 
but  little  it  is  light.  Take,  now,  a  further  step.  Suppose  an  owner 
dies,  aud  his  estate  with  its  slaves  comes  into  the  hands  of  trustees;  or 
suppose  the  estate  and  everything  on  it  to  be  bought  by  a  company: 
is  the  condition  of  the  slave  any  the  better  if  the  amount  of  his  com- 
pulsory labor  remains  the  same.  Suppose  that  for  a  company  we 
substitute  the  community;  does  it  make  any  difference  to  the  slave  if 
the  time  he  has  to  work  for  others  is  as  great,  and  the  time  left  for 
himself  is  as  small,  as  before?  The  essential  question  is — How  much 
is  he  compelled  to  labor  for  other  benefit  than  his  own,  and  how  much 
can  he  labor  for  his  own  benefit?  The  degree  of  his  slavery  varies 
according  to  the  ratio  between  that  which  he  is  forced  to  yield  up  and 
that  which  he  is  allowed  to  retain;  and  it  matters  not  whether  his 
master  is  a  single  person  or  a  society.  If,  without  option,  he  has  to 
labor  for  the  society,  and  receives  from  the  general  stock  such  portion 
as  the  society  awards  him,  he  becomes  a  slave  to  the  society.  Social- 
istic arrangements  necessitate  an  enslavement  of  this  kind;  and 
toward  such  an  enslavement  many  recent  measures,  and  still  more  the 
measures  advocated,  are  carrying  us. 


THE   NEW   SLAVERY.  143 

David  Dudley  Field  goes  a  step  even  beyond  this,  and 
in  the  July  number,  1885,  of  The  North  American  Review. 
referring  to  Mr.  George's  particular  theory,  of  which  we 
shall  say  something  very  soon,  points  out  a  danger  that 
would  be  incurred  by  accumulating  in  the  coffers  of  the 
State  as  much  money  as  the  actual  working  of  his  plan 
would  inevitably  commit  to  its  keeping.  It  would  have 
to  be  collected  and  disbursed,  and  he  argues  this  "would 
tend  to  the  corruption  of  the  government  beyond  all 
former  precedent."  This  peril  would  necessarily  increase 
in  proportion  as  the  government's  oversight  and  manage- 
ment were  extended  to  all  departments  of  industry  and 
property,  as  would  be  the  case  in  unadulterated  Socialism, 
and  the  end,  judging  from  what  is  known  of  humanity, 
would  probably  be,  not  merely  a  desrjotism,  but  a  rascally 
despotism  at  that. 

There  are  other  objections  to  the  Science  of  Society 
advocated  by  such  men  as  Herr  Most  which  press  them- 
selves on  the  attention  of  thoughtful  people,  and  which 
ought  to  be  considered  here.  First  of  all,  the  more  it 
is  studied,  the  more  deadly  will  its  influence  appear  on 
diligence  and  enterprise.  Elliott,  the  rhymer,  has  some 
very  striking  lines  on  the  Communist's  character,  which 
are  significant: 

What  is  a  communist?    One  who  hath  yearnings 
For  equal  division  of  unequal  earnings; 
Idler  or  bungler,  he's  one  who  is  willing 
To  fork  out  his  penny  and  pocket  your  shilling. 

Then  he  gives  us  this  conception  of  his  prayer: 

Lord  send  us  weeks  of  Sundays, 

A  saint's  day  every  day! 
Shirts  gratis,  ditto  breeches, 

Less  work  and  double  pay! 

To  some  of  our  readers  this  description  may  seem  a 
burlesque;  but  if  they  will  reflect  for  a  moment  it  will  grow 


144  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

on  them  as  a  faithful  portraiture.  If  the  State  is  to  care 
for  everybody  is.  it  not  reasonable  to  expect  that  many 
"bodies"  will  simply  fall  back  on  their  protector,  and 
supinely  rely  on  this  blessed  agency  to  feed,  clothe  and  house 
them?  Wendell  Philips  once  said  that  the  minority  under 
existing  arrangements  has  to  think  and  work  for  the 
majority,  and  this  majority  very  likely  would  increase 
indefinitely  were  it  accepted  as  a  fundamental  principle 
that  it  could  transfer  the  responsibility  for  its  welfare  to 
the  government.  A  premium  this  offered  improvidence 
and  shiftlessness.  What  a  delightful  Paradise  Society 
would  become  for  Lazzaroni  and  Gaberlunzie  men,  and  for 
the  whole  tattered  fraternity  of  idlers  and  beggars  who 
believe  that  "the  world  owes  them  a  living"  under  the 
benign  auspices  of  State  Paternalism.  If  it  shall  be  said, 
no  such  Paradise  would  open  to  these  parasites,  as  they 
would  be  compelled  to  work  under  the  new  regime,  even 
if  punishment  had  to  be  inflicted;  then  what  an  edifying 
spectacle  would  be  presented  in  the  name  of  equality  of 
one  portion  of  the  dear  people  driving  slave-like,  with 
scourgings  manifold,  the  other  portion  to  their  toil. 
And  then  suppose  these  good-for-nothings  would  not  be 
driven,  as  probably  they  would  not,  what  a  Millenium  of 
insurrection,  bloodshed,  and  finally  of  anarchy  would 
ensue.  The  workings  of  this  political  hallucination  would 
unquestionably  speedily  put  an  end  to  equality;  or  rather 
it  would  never  have  any  beginning;  and  if  there  was 
equality  at  all,  it  would  be  that  of  the  slimy  pond  with 
never  the  possibility  of  a  grand  billow  to  break  the 
dreary  monotony  of  its  surface.  For  why  should  there  be 
enterprise  when  there  could  be  no  reward?  and  without 
enterprise  Society  would  be  malariously  stagnant.  The 
motto  of  St.  Simon,  who,  by  the  way,  is  frequently  mis- 
understood or  maligned,  was  "to  each  one  according  to 
his  capacity,  to  each  capacity  according  to  its  work." 


ORGANIZED    IDLENESS.  145 

This  is  a  sound  saying,  but  obnoxious  to  the  revolutionary 
school  we  are  considering,  which  would  reward  all  alike, 
whether  great  or  small,  useful  or  useless.  Strictly  adhered 
to  there  could  be  no  encouragements,  no  honors,  no 
mighty  inducements  to  exceptional  endeavors.  Even  as  it 
is,  some,  if  not  all,  Trades-Unions  stand  in  their  own 
light  by  advocating  the  right  of  the  most  worthless  work- 
men to  the  same  pay  as  that  earned  by  the  best.  Their 
standard  of  excellence  in  many  instances  is  determined  by 
the  dilatory  and  unskillful;  and,  consequently,  labor  of 
every  kind  is  temporarily  deteriorating  in  quality.  This 
is  one  of  the  significant  facts  of  the  times,  concerning 
which  these  words  were  written,  in  substance  if  not  exactly 
as  quoted,  by  one  of  the  brilliant  minds  of  England : 

You  will  see  a  strong,  stout  laborer  dawdling  over  his  task  as  a 
sick  man  with  a  spark  of  spirit  in  him  would  be  ashamed  to  dawdle, 
laying  a  brick  daintily  here,  and  another  there,  and  stopping  to  have 
a  look  at  it  and  chat  with  a  comrade  before  he  lays  another.  There 
are  those,  however,  in  the  same  gang  who  would  lay  their  bricks  at 
double  the  rate,  if  they  dared.  Who  is  to  hinder  them?  It  is  the 
man  who  works  next  to  them  of  whom  they  are  afraid.  If  they 
show  undue  diligence  they  are  reported  to  the  Union,  and  a  black 
mark  is  put  against  their  names,  as  they  are  making  it  harder  for  the 
lazy  ones  to  live.  The  sons  of  industry  are  afraid  of  industry,  lest 
lazy,  worthless  loons  should  be  forced  to  work  or  starve.  O  men  ! 
things  have  come  near  to  their  end  when  ye  organize  idleness  and  make 
it  your  god.  So  long  as  ye  yield  to  such  a  blighting  tyranny  ye  are 
making  it  more  difficult  for  your  class  to  rise  ! 

But  if  it  is  mischievous  for  a  body  of  people  to  be 
organized  on  such  a  principle,  how  ruinous  it  would  be  for 
the  community  as  a  whole  to  adopt  it  as  fundamental  to  its 
existence.  It  would  be  the  paralysis  of  energy,  the  arrest 
of  progress.  No  one  would  be  stimulated  to  excel  his 
neighbor,  and  the  ambition  of  all  would  be  to  do  less  than 
others,  not  more.  Discoveries,  inventions  and  improve- 
ments would  be  next  to  impossible,  and  only  stolidity  and 
stupidity  would  be  at  a  premium. 
10 


146  STUDIES   IK   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

Moreover  this  scheme  may  be  legitimately  objected  to 
on  strictly  moral  grounds.  It  would  be  legalized  robbery; 
for  the  earnings  of  the  deserving  would  be  taken  to  enrich 
the  undeserving,  and  this  would  lead  to  a  bitter  sense  of 
wrong  and  outrage.  As  the  friends  of  St.  Simon  said  dur- 
ing the  memorable  controversy  of  1830,  community  of 
goods  '"  would  be  a  greater  act  of  violence,,  a  more  outra- 
geous injustice,  than  the  Tinequal  division  which  originally 
was  brought  about  by  the  power  of  arms  and  by  conquest." 
To  inaugurate  such  a  state  of  things  there  would  have  to 
be  wholesale  spoliation,  and  this  would  simply  be  the 
public  recognition  of  theft  as  one  of  the  cardinal  virtues. 
That  such  spoliation  is  seriously  contemplated  in  our  day 
is  proven  by  the  latest  utterances  of  The  Freiheit,  an 
International  organ.  In  an  article  headed  "The  Last 
Argument"  we  have  these  incendiary  threats: 

The  proletariat  arc  determined  to  make  the  coming  war  the  final 
war  at  all  hazards.  Their  object  must  be  to  wound  the  bourgeoisie 
where  it  is  mortal— this  place  is  their  property.  The  coming  revo- 
lution will  not  go  far  before  it  can  be  determined  whether  property 
can  lx-  confiscated  for  the  common  good  or  not.  If  it  can,  all  the 
better.  If  not,  property  must  be  destroyed.  We  say  property  in 
general,  for  little  would  be  accomplished  by  destroying  public  prop- 
erty and  fragments  of  private  property.  Whatever  the  bourgeoisie 
is  it  is  \>\  capital;  without  capital  it  is  nothing.  If,  therefore,  capital 
cannot  be  secured,  and  if  the  terrible  prospect  should  be  that  reaction 
should  again  celebrate  its  orgies  over  the  bodies  of  the  revolutionists, 
then  there  can  be  no  hesitating.  General  destruction  must  be  pro- 
claimed and  practiced  without  favor.  It  was  by  these  tactics  the 
Teutonic  tribes  conquered  Rome  and  Russia  and  vanquished  the  elder 
Napoleon.  There  is  no  remedy  against  this  policy.  The  revolution- 
ists of  the  past  have  tried  to  gain  a  footing  in  the  big  cities,  and  if 
they  could  not  hold  them  they  were  massacred  in  their  streets.  In 
the  future  such  cities  as  cannot  be  defended  must  simply  be  destroyed, 
and  so  thoroughly  that  not  a  stone  remains  in  its  place.  If  one  hun- 
dred thousand  men  cannot  accomplish  anything  in  open  battle,  a  few 
hundreds  of  resolute  people  can  envelop  in  flames  a  city  however 
large.  What  the  hands  of  proletarians  have  erected  they  have  a  right 
to  pull  down. 


ETHICAL   COXFUSIOK.  147 

If  this  brigandage  and  incendiarism  are  to  be  counte- 
nanced, that  the  condition  of  the  people  may  be  equalized, 
why  may  not  the  individual,  if  he  shall  squander  his  por- 
tion of  the  goods  stolen  during  the  panic  attending  this 
promised  conflagration  in  riotous  living,  plunder  his  neigh- 
bor for  his  own  special  advantage?  If  what  my  fellow- 
citizen  has  is  mine,  and  if  what  I  have  is  his,  what  is  to 
restrain  me  from  wasting  what  is  his,  and  then  demanding 
in  peremptory  tones  what  he  admits  is  my  own?  It  may 
be  answered,  "law."  Well,  but  the  enforcement  of  law 
largely  depends  on  public  sentiment  in  its  favor,  and  this 
theory  supposes  in  the  first  place  the  education  of  the 
community  down  to  the  idea  that  dishonesty  is  honest. 
With  such  ethical  confusion  once  introduced  what  is  to 
prevent  it  spreading  until  all  moral  distinctions  are  oblit- 
erated? We  have  been  taught  to  believe  that  the  producer 
has  some  kind  of  property-right  in  the  thing  produced,  and 
that  what  he  earns  he  really  owns;  and  that  he  cannot  be 
deprived  of  this  without  being  made  the  victim  of  a  crime. 
Is  this  sound  doctrine  or  is  it  not?  The  wisest  men  say 
that  it  is.  Would  not  the  triumph  of  Socialism  be  the 
reverse  of  this  judgment?  In  our  opinion  it  would;  for 
the  sense  of  obligation  and  responsibility  must  be  seriously 
diminished  if  we  lose  sight  of  the  duties  we  owe  to  private 
property.  If  we  were  to  set  aside  the  teachings  of  the  most 
enlightened  nations  on  this  subject,  the  sovereignty  of 
obligation  in  general  would  decline,  and  it  would  soon 
come  to  pass  that,  as  the  rights  of  individuals  in  their 
possessions  were  disregarded,  so  the  authority  of  elected 
superiors  and  officials  would  also  be  ignored.  The  sequence 
any  one  can  portray,  and  we  presume  few  persons  will 
claim  that  it  would  present  fewer  miseries  and  less  demor- 
alization than  confront  us  to-day. 

Among  other  dire  results  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that 
the  degradation  of  woman  would  be  conspicuous.  "  The 


148  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

ownership  of  everything  by  everybody"  would  come  to 
include  humanity.  Community  of  wives  is  not  regarded  by 
many  Socialists  as  an  illogical  deduction  from  community 
of  property.  Indeed,  we  are  not  left  simply  to  imagine 
what  would  be  the  outcome  of  their  principles  were  they 
really  applied;  for  some  of  them  have  anticipated  their 
workings  with  great  precision,  and  with  candor  equally 
great  have  informed  the  world  what  kind  of  heaven  they 
propose  for  women  in  the  new  era.  Observe,  we  do  not 
accuse  all  of  them  of  entertaining  pernicious  sentiments 
on  this  subject  —  only  some  —  but  those  who  do  indicate 
the  true  drift  of  their  system.  This  drift  was  expressed 
by  Hasenclever,  one  of  Lassalle's  associates  in  the  German 
"Workingmen's  Union,  when  he  said: 

In  the  communistic  state,  where  the  community  bears  the  obliga- 
tion of  educating  and  maintaining  the  children,  where  no  private 
capital  subsists,  but  all  instruments  of  production  are  common  prop- 
erty, the  woman  need  no  longer,  out  of  respect-  to  her  children,  be 
legally  chained  to  one  man.  The  bond  between  the  sexes  will  be 
simply  a  moral  one,  and  then  such  a  bond,  if  the  characters  did  not 
harmonize,  could  be  dissolved. 

During  the  same  meeting  Jorissen  substantially  said, 
that  a  maiden  who  disposed  freely  of  her  love  was  no 
prostitute  —  she  was  the  free  wife  of  the  future.  In  the 
state  of  the  future  only  love  should  direct  tht,  union  of  the 
sexes.  Between  the  married  wife  and  the  so-called  prosti- 
tute there  is  only  a  quantitive  difference.  (See  Jager's 
Socialismus,  as  quoted  by  Dr.  AVoolsey.)  And  Annie 
Besant,  in  the  National  Reformer,  June  4,  1876,  gives  the 
Secularists'  conception  of  marriage,  which  also  reflects  the 
belief  of  the  better  class  of  Socialists.  She  writes: 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  marriage  is  different  as  regarded  from 
the  Secularist  and  from  the  Christian  point  of  view.  The  Secularist 
reverences  marriage,  but  he  regards  marriage  as  something  far  higher 
than  a  union  "blessed"  by  a  minister;  he  considers,  also,  that  mar- 
riage should  be  terminable,  like  any  other  contract,  when  it  fails  in 


COMMUNISM    AND    MAR1UAGE.  149 

its  object,  and  becomes  injurious  instead  of  beneficial;  lie  does  not 
despise  human  passion,  or  pretend  that  he  has  no  body;  on  the  con- 
trary, reverencing  nature,  he  regards  physical  union  as  perfecting  the 
union  of  heart  and  mind,  and  sees  in  the  complete  unity  of  marriage 
the  possibility  of  a  far  higher  and  nobler  humanity  than  either  man 
or  woman  can  attain  in  a  state  of  celibacy. 

Not  unexpectedly  we  find  connected  with  these  senti- 
ments a  deep  and  widespread  antipathy  to  the  super- 
natural. Christianity,  especially  historical  Christianity, 
is  usually  derided  and  discarded  by  the  uncompromising 
Socialist.  Schaeffle,  certainly  a  competent  witness, 
declares,  that  "the  Socialism  of  to-day  is  through  and 
through  irreligious  and  hostile  to  the  Church."  The 
same  idea  appears  in  Cabet's  Voyage  en  Icarie,  where  the 
most  radical  doctrines  are  promulgated.  And  Karl  Marx 
writes  that  the  German  theory  starts  "with  the  decisive, 
positive  abolition  of  religion,"  and  adds: 

The  critique  of  religion  ends  with  the  doctrine  that  man  is  the 
highest  being  for  men;  and  thus  with  the  categorical  imperative  of 
overthrowing  all  relations  in  which  man  is  a  degraded,  enslaved,  for- 
saken, contemptible  being;  relations  which  one  cannot  better  describe 
than  by  the  exclamation  of  a  Frenchman  on  occasion  of  a  projected 
dog-tax:  "  Poor  dogs!  they  are  going  to  treat  you  like  men." 

The  Communistic  revolution  in  Paris,  1871,  while, 
accurately  speaking,  not  avowedly  a  revolt  of  those  hold- 
ing to  the  economic  views  which  bear  this  name,  was  yet 
thoroughly  imbued  with  their  spirit  and  was  thoroughly 
atheistic.  Its  leaders  raged  and  swore  against  the 
Almighty,  massacred  priests,  profaned  churches,  and  did 
everything  within  the  scope  of  devilish  ingenuity  to 
evince  their  contempt  for  all  things  sacred.  Referring  to 
the  development  of  a  kindred  political  party  in  Russia, 
Stepniak  writes:  "Absolute  atheism  is  the  sole  inherit- 
ance that  has  been  preserved  intact  by  the  new  generation, 
and  I  need  scarcely  point  out  how  much  advantage 
the  modern  revolutionary  movement  has  derived  from  it." 


]:>(>  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIl-K. 

Also  Dr.  Draper,  grouping  together  several  radical  classes 
of  agitators,  whose  names  differ,  but  whose  fundamental 
ideas  are  pretty  much  the  same,  has  this  to  say  of  their 
faith,  or  rather  of  their  no-faith: 

What  is  it  that  has  given  birth  to  the  Nihilist,  the  Communist,  the 
Socialist?  It  is  the  total  extinction  of  religious  belief.  With  no 
spiritual  prop  to  support  them,  no  expectation  of  a  hereafter  in 
which  the  inequality  of  this  life  may  be  adjusted,  angry  at  the  cun- 
ningly devised  net  from  which  they  have  escaped,  they  have  aban- 
doned all  hope  of  spiritual  intervention  in  their  behalf,  and  have 
undertaken  to  right  their  wrongs  themselves. — (Princeton  Review, 
January,  1879.) 

This  godless  tendency  is  evidently  very  strong.  We 
do  not  assert  that  it  is  absolutely  inseparable  from  Social- 
ism; for  there  have  been  those  who  have  held  firmly  to  its 
fundamental  idea  of  ''mutualism"  and  mutualism  regu- 
lated by  law.  and  yet  have  been  sincere  worshipers  of 
God.  But  the  point  we  make  is  that  when  the  people 
commit  themselves  unreservedly  to  its  doctrines  they 
are  in  danger  of  breaking  away  from  spiritual  realities. 
Influenced  by  extreme  opinions  concerning  the  cure  of 
social  inequalities,  many  of  them  become  fanatical,  and 
begin  to  think  of  the  unapproachable  sovereignty  of 
Jehovah  with  suspicion  and  jealousy;  and  as  they  cannot 
elevate  themselves  to  his  greatness,  nor  drag  him  down  to 
their  littleness,  they  undertake  to  abolish  belief  in  his 
existence.  They  discern  upon  his  person  the  insignia  of  a 
monarch,  and  as  they  have  sworn  death  to  royalty,  they 
would  assassinate  him — if  they  could.  Happily  for  the 
world  he  is  beyond  their  reach,  or  we  would  speedily  have 
a  murdered  deity  and  a  vacant  throne.  Yet  by  this  blind 
craze  we  are  persuaded  that  many  are  carried  away 
.not  so  much  through  actual  viciousness  as  through  ex- 
cessive devotion  to  an  idea;  just  as  the  perfectionists 
of  Oneida,  though  eminently  pious,  were  betrayed  into 


HENRY   GEORGE.  151 

"  complex  marriages  "  through  their  singular  notions  re- 
garding property.  They  advanced  the  extraordinary  doc- 
trine that  there  "  is  no  intrinsic  difference  between  property 
in  persons  and  property  in  things;  and  that  the  same  spirit 
Avhich  abolished  exclusiveness  in  regard  to  money  would 
abolish,  if  circumstances  allowed  full  scope  to  it,  exclu- 
siveness in  regard  to  women  and  children."  (See  Tsord- 
hoff's  Communistic  Societies  of  the  United  States,  pp. 
271-2.)  And  just  here  culminates  the  utter  failure  of 
the  scheme  we  are  criticising.  Whatever  advantages 
may  possibly  spring  from  it,  assuredly  equality  is 
one.  As  we  have  seen,  it  cannot  dispense  with  official 
rank  and  administrations,  also  that  it  must  pull  down 
the  industrious  to  lift  up  the  idle,  and  that  this  equa- 
tion is  a  positive  injustice  to  the  former  class;  and  we 
have  discovered  that  it  tends  toward  the  subjection  of 
woman  almost  to  the  condition  of  a  slave,  thereby  con- 
templating inequality  in  one  of  its  most  objectionable 
forms;  and  concludes  by  sweeping  away  every  vestige  of 
a  faith  through  which  the  little  of  human  brotherhood 
witnessed  in  the  world  has  been  realized.  It  works,1 
therefore,  rather  against  equality  than  in  its  favor.  And 
for  this  reason,  if  for  none  other,  the  large  majority  of' 
intelligent  people  must  regard  it  as  a  political  extrava- 
ganza, a  piece  of  clamorous  charlatanism,  as  impractica- 
ble as  it  is  inconsistent. 

We  have  incidently  referred  to  the  land  theory  of 
Mr.  Henry  George,  -and  as  it  is  offered  as  a  cure  for  the 
grievous  disparities  of  our  times  its  merits  ought  to  be 
carefully  pondered.  Although  it  contains  a  Communistic 
element,  we  shall  find  it  widely  separated  from  the  lawless 
schools  of  political  economy  which  propose  to  subvert 
individuality  and  integrity  alike.  Mr.  George  does  not 
discredit  industry  or  honesty,  neither  does  he  carry 
"mutualism"  so  far  as  to  annul  all  legitimate  claims  to 


152  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

personal  and  private  property.  He  is  not  to  be  classed 
with  Herr  Most,  or  with  the  yelling  crowd  who  are 
looking  for  affluence  through  some  legislative  authori- 
zation of  plunder.  No;  the  author  of  the  now  famous 
book,  Progress  and  Poverty,  would  simply  have  the  ter- 
ritory of  'the  nation  held  as  the  common  property  of  the 
nation,  practically,  if  not  formally,  abolishing  private 
ownership.  This  he  proposes  to  accomplish,  not  by  con- 
fiscating land,  but  by  confiscating  rent.  So  far  as  his 
scheme  bears  on  the  subject  of  this  discussion  it  may  be 
well  to  hear  from  himself  an  expression,  both  of  his  plans 
and  his  hopes.  We  read,  p.  Jfi5,  and,  also,  on  p.  364  •' 

But  the  great  cause  of  inequality  is  in  the  natural  monopoly 
which  is  given  by  the  possession  of  land.  The  first  perceptions  of 
men  seem  always  to  be  that  land  is  common  property,  but  the  rude 
devices  by  which  this  is  at  first  recognized  —  such  as  annual  partitions 
or  cultivation  in  common  —  are  only  consistent  with  a  low  stage  of 
development.  The  idea  of  property,  which  naturally  arises  with 
reference  to  things  of  human  production,  is  easily  transferred  to 
land,  and  an  institution  which,  when  population  is  sparse,  merely 
secures  to  the  improver  and  user  the  due  reward  of  his  labor,  finally, 
as  population  becomes  dense  and  rent  arises,  operates  to  strip  the  pro- 
ducer of  his  wages.  Not  merely  this,  but  the  appropriation  of  rent 
for  public  purposes,  which  is  the  only  way  in  which,  with  anything 
like  a  high  development,  land  can  be  readily  attained  as  common 
property,  becomes,  when  political  and  religious  power  .passes  into 
the  hands  of  a  class,  the  ownership  of  the  land  by  that  class,  and  the 
rest  of  the  community  become  merely  tenants.  And  wars  and  con- 
quests, which  tend  to  the  concentration  of  political  power  and  to  the 
institution  of  slavery,  naturally  result,  where  social  growth  has  given 
laud  a  value,  in  the  appropriation  of  the  soil.  A  dominant  class, 
who  concentrate  power  in  their  hands,  will  likewise  soon  concentrate 
ownership  of  the  land.  To  them  will  fall  large  partitions  of  con- 
quered laud,  which  the  former  inhabitants  Avill  till  as  tenants  or 
serfs,  and  the  public  domain,  or  common  lands,  which  in  the  natural 
course  of  social  growth  are  left  for  awhile  in  every  country  (and  in 
which  state  the  primitive  system  of  village  culture  leaves  pasture  and 
woodland),  are  readily  acquired,  as  we  see  by  modem  instances. 
And  inequality  once  established,  the  ownership  of  land  tends  to  con- 
centrate as  development  goes  on, 


PROGRESS    AND    POVERTY.  153 

What  I,  therefore,  propose,  as  the  simple  yet  sovereign  remedy, 
which  will  raise  wages,  increase  the  earnings  of  capital,  extirpate; 
pauperism,  abolish  poverty,  give  remunerative  employment  to  who- 
ever wishes  it,  afford  free  scope  to  human  powers,  lessen  crime, 
elevate  morals  and  taste  and  intelligence,  purify  government  and 
carry  civilization  to  yet  nobler  heights,  is  —  to  appropriate  rent  by 
taxation. 

A  further  statement  of.  his  views  we  have  in  The  North 
American  Review,  July,  1885,  where,  during  a  conversa- 
tion with  David  Dudley  Field,  he  says  : 

I  hold  that  that  which  a  man  produces  is  rightfully  his,  and  his 
alone;  that  it  should  not  be  taken  from  him  for  any  purpose,  even  for 
public  uses,  so  long  as  there  is  any  public  property  that  might  be  em- 
ployed for  that  purpose  ;  and,  therefore,  I  would  exempt  from  taxa- 
tion everything  in  the  nature  of  capital,  personal  property  or  improve- 
ments, in  short,  that  property  which  is  the  result  of  man's  exertion. 
But  I  hold  that  land  is  not  the  rightful  property  of  any  individual. 
As  you  say  again,  "  no  one  can  have  private  property  in  privilege," 
and  if  the  land  belongs,  as  I  hold  it  does  belong,  to  all  the  people,  the 
holding  of  any  part  of  it  is  a  privilege  for  which  the  individual  holder 
should  compensate  the  general  owner  according  to  the  pecuniary  value 
of  the  privilege.  To  exact  this  would  not  be  to  despoil  any  one  of  his 
rightful  property,  but  to  put  an  end  to  spoliation  that  now  goes  on. 
*  *  *  I  think  immediately  a  substantial  equality  would  be  arrived 
at,  such  an  equality  as  would  do  away  with  the  spectacle  of  a  man 
unable  to  find  work,  and  would  secure  to  all  a  good  and  easy  living 
with  a  mere  modicum  of  the  hard  labor  and  worrimeut  now  under- 
gone by  most  of  us. 

We  entertain  the  profoundest  esteem  for  Mr.  Henry 
George,  hoth  as  a  man  and  as  a  writer,  and  with  the  spirit 
manifested  in  his  book  and  in  his  articles  we  sympathize, 
though  we  do  not  agree  with  the  recommendations  set 
forth,  nor  believe  their  enforcement  would  be  as  fertile  in 
blessings  as  he  supposes  Like  many  others  who  try  to 
originate  remedies  for  crying  evils,  his  judgment  is  be- 
wildered by  his  invention,  and  he  imagines  that  vastly 
more  will  come  of  it  than  is  at  all  probable.  Thus, 
when  he  claims  that  his  proposed  reform  will  "raise  wages, 


154  STUDIES    IN   'SOCIAL   LIFE. 

increase  the  earnings  of  capital,  extirpate  pauperism, 
abolish  poverty,  give  remunerative  employment  to  whoever 
wishes  it,  afford  free  scope  to  human  powers,  lessen  crime, 
elevate  morals  and  taste  and  intelligence,  purify  govern- 
ment," and  in  effect  result  in  "substantial  equality/'  we 
humbly  suggest  that  he  is  attributing  to  it  far  more  than 
in  the  nature  of  things  it  can  accomplish.  The  ball  is  too 
big  for  the  cannon.  Possibly  various  advantages  might 
accrue  were  the  measures  he  defends  so  eloquently  put  in 
pi'actice;  but  it  requires  credulity  of  oceanic  extent  and 
depth  to  subscribe  sincerely  to  the  expectation  that  a 
change  in  the  nominal  ownership  of  the  soil,  and  State 
"appropriation  of  rent  by  taxation,"  would  or  could  ter- 
minate the  manifold  ills  which  now  alarm  the  civilized 
Avorld.  A  little  reflection  on  Mr.  George's  scheme  we  are 
persuaded  will  satisfy  the  candid  inquirer  that  he  has  over- 
estimated and  overstated  its  value. 

Let  us  remember  that  he  founds  his  glowing  hopes 
simply  on  a  change  of  ownership.  According  to  his  plan 
the  nation  is  henceforward  to  own  the  soil,  and  this  is  to 
be  rented  or  taxed,  the  tax  going  to  the  common  treasury, 
relieving  the  people  of  burdens,  the  plan  also  affording 
them  an  opportunity  of  leasing  small,  or  comparatively 
small,  holdings.  The  government  would,  of  course,  fix  the 
amount  of  rent,  and  would  have  to  decide  between  parties 
contending  for  the  same  estate;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
would  find  itself  controlling  an  immense  amount  of  terri- 
tory which  no  one  would  attempt  to  cultivate,  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  not  be  profitable.  One  can  readily 
imagine  the  entanglement  consequent  on  such  a  condition 
of  things,  and  how  greed — for  Mr.  George  provides  uo 
remedy  for  that — would  anger  disappointed  bidders  for 
eligible  farms  and  pasturage  and  desirable  business  stands; 
and  how  the  population  would  be  practically  turned  into 
one  huge  officoseeker,  determined  on  gaining  from  the  ad- 


DIFFICULTIES    OF    STATE    LANDLORDISM.  155 

ministration  the  most  fertile  lands;  and  then  one  can  easily 
perceive  how  brawls  and  violence  might  develop  from  these 
conflicting  interests,  and  how,  if  they  did  not  increase  the 
corruption  of  public  affairs,  they  certainly  would  not  dimin- 
ish it,  and  on  either  supposition  would  leave  many  of  the 
evils  which  now  afflict  us  intact.  But  let  us  take  for  granted 
that  the.se  almost  unavoidable  difficulties  have  been  judi- 
ciously composed,  and  that  a  fair  division  of  the  national 
domain  has  been  made,  and  at  moderate  prices,  say,  for  no 
more  than  a  fair  equivalent  for  the  advantages  received; 
yet,  even  were  this  arrangement  perfected,  would  it  insure 
equality?  Not  necessarily.  Is  it  not  next  to  certain,  men 
being  constituted  variously  as  they  are,  that  some  would 
cause  their  lands  to  yield  twice  as  much  as  others,  that 
they  would  also  economize  when  others  squandered,  and 
so  would  lift  themselves  up  into  a  well-to-do  order, 
entiiely  separated  from  the  less  competent  and  the  less 
frugal?  It  would  likewise  be  inevitable  that  some  would 
fail  altogether,  and  would  either  have  to  be  compelled  by 
force  to  labor,  and  so  form  a  kind  of  slave  class,  or  be 
expelled  from  their  holdings  and  so  degenerate  into  a 
mendicant  class.  We  have  all  seen  this  with  more  or 
less  distinctness  illustrated  over  and  ovep  again.  We 
have  known  men  possessed  of  farms  the  same  in  fer- 
tility, and  yet  while  one  steadily  grew  rich  the  other  con- 
tinually drifted  toward  poverty;  his  fields  were  untilled, 
his  barns  were  neglected,  and  the  place  was  a  burden  and 
expense.  Others  start  in  life  with  similar  fortunes  and 
with  similar  bright  business  prospects.  We  need  not  tell 
you  that  their  paths  frequently  divide;  that  one  goes  up- 
ward toward  increasing  prosperity,  and  the  other  downward 
toward  ever-deepening  adversity.  However  equal  their  ad- 
vantages at  starting,  however  equally  favoring  their  cir- 
cumstances, they  may  drift  as  far  apart  as  the  poles;  from 
which  we  learn  that  the  disposition  of  land  according  to 


156  STUDIES   1ST   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

the  scheme  of  Mr.  George  would  not  necessarily  insure  the 
termination  of  social  inequalities.      It  would  no  more  do] 
so  than  the  alleged  Spartan  experiment  in  the  same  direc-/ 
tion,  which  failed  to  equalize  the  condition  of  the  Dorian ) 
conquerors,    and   which   speedily   came   to   an   end;    and/ 
neither  would  it  inevitably  do  so  any  more  than  the  system  j 
now  in  vogue;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  the  essential  difference/ 
between  them  is  simply  one  of  proprietorship — whether  we\ 
shall  rent,  if  we  rent  at  all,  of  the  State  or  of  individuals',/ 
and  experience  goes  to  show  that  the  condition  of  tenants  N 
is  not  wholly  determined  by  their  landlords,  but  in  some  L 
good  degree,  at  least,  by  their  own  character  and  abilities^/ 

This  is  amply  confirmed  by  what  we  know  of  those 
countries  where  the  land  is  most  generally  divided,  and 
where  it  is  held  on  the  easiest  terms.  In  Russia,  for  in- 
stance, according  to  Stepniak,  the  peasants  have  "ob- 
scina  "  (rural  commune),  with  the  collective  property  of 
the  land,  and  the  "mir"  or  "gromeda"  (communal  as- 
sembly). Thus  they  not  only  have  possession  of  the  soil 
in  a  way  approximating  to  the  plan  of  Mr.  George,  but 
they  also  have  machinery  adapted  to  administer  their 
rights  in  the  most  liberal  fashion.  Yet,  notwithstanding 
these  advantages,  they  are  widely  separated  from  the  up- 
per classes,  have  neither  their  privileges  nor  enjoyments. 
They  are  scorned  and  oppressed.  If  it  is  said  that  the 
continuance  of  their  deplorable  plight  is  due  to  taxation,  the 
military  service,  vicious  habits,  and  to  the  lack  of  educa- 
tion, we  shall  not  dispute  the  statement;  only  let  it  not  be 
forgotten  that  it  intimates  very  clearly  that  something 
more  than  favorable  land  tenure  is  necessary  to  diminish 
social  inequalities.  The  same  inference  may  be  drawn  from 
other  nations  where  landlordism  is  not  prominent,  and 
where  its  sway  is  least  tyrannous.  In  France  there  are  now 
about  2,000,000  properties  under  twelve  and  twenty-five 
acres,  while  there  are  only  150,000  above  100  acres.  Of 


SMALL  FARMS  IX  EUROPE.  157 

the  entire  population  there  are  1,750,000  who  are  not  ten- 
ants, and  only  850,000  who  cultivate  the  soil  as  tenants, 
and  not  more  than  57,000  who  employ  foremen  or  stew- 
ards. This  is  a  favorable  showing.  It  may  be  matched  by  a 
similar  subdivision  in  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Denmark,  Nor- 
way, Sweden  and  extensive  portions  of  Italy.  But  in  these 
nations  nothing  like  Mr.  George's  hopes  are  realized.  Ad- 
mitting that  the  peasantry  under  these  governments  in 
some  things  are  better  off  than  the  rural  population  in 
England  and  America,  still  they  are  not  exempt  from 
the  insolence  of  aristocracies  and  the  inconveniences  of 
poverty.  Distinctions  are  as  apparent  there  as  here,  and 
in  no  perceptible  degree  has  individual  ownership  in  France 
or  the  communal  plan  of  Russia  raised  wages,  increased 
the  earnings  of  capital,  extirpated  pauperism,  lessened 
crime,  elevated  morality,  taste  and  intelligence.  Why 
have  the  desirable  conditions,  approaching  in  spirit  to 
those  advocated  by  our  gifted  author,  signally  failed  to 
realize  the  blessings  he  predicts  so  confidently.  The 
explanation  we  believe  is  to  be  found  not  only  in  the  over- 
shadowing curse  of  certain  institutions,  but  in  the  char- 
acter and  habits  of  the  soil-tillers  themselves;  and  if  this  is 
so,  then  it  follows  that  Mr.  George's  scheme  taken  by  itself, 
even  were  it  feasible,  would  be  grievously  disappointing  in  its 
outcome.  That  scheme  plus  something  else  might  do  good; 
but  then  the  question  arises  whether  that  "  something  else  " 
might  not  accomplish  as  much  good,  and  by  a  method  less 
revolutionary.  We  believe  that  it  would. 

We  are  convinced  that  any  radical  departure  from  the 
fundamental  principle  underlying  land  ownership  in 
America  would  be  injurious  to  society.  However  it  has 
been  abused,  and  however  liable  to  abuse,  it  is  in  our  judg- 
ment, on  the  whole,  superior  to  the  substitute  elaborated 
in  the  volume  on  Progress  and  Poverty.  In  saying  this 
we  do  not  denv  that  the  entire  territory  of  a  country  in 


158  STUDIES   IX  SOCIAL   LIFE, 

reality  belongs  in  proprietary  right  to  the  people  at  large. 
It  is  a  maxim  of  English  law  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
in  our  system  as  an  absolute  private  ownership  of  property 
in  land.  The  supreme  title  even  now  is  vested  in  the  State, 
and  the  individual  has  only  a  strictly  defined  subordinate 
claim,  subject  to  conditions  from  time  to  time  enacted  by 
the  representatives  of  the  community.  (See  Encyclo. 
Brit  an.,  article  Land.}  This  being  the  case,  the  citizens 
of  a  nation  can  both  legally  and  morally  modify  or  radically 
alter  the  terms  upon  which  its  broad  fields  may  be  culti- 
vated and  developed.  If,  therefore,  they  were  disposed 
to  do  so,  they  could,  after  paying  suitable  compensation 
to  those  who  have  on  the  faith  of  the  government  and  the 
stability  of  its  present  order  invested  money  in  the  soil, 
adopt  the  recommendations  of  Mr.  George,  and  do  so  with- 
out invading  or  destroying  any  personal  rights  whatever. 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  enthusiastically  indorses  this  position, 
and  in  language  somewhat  strong,  and  possibly  in  some 
respects  misleading,  extols  its  advantages.  He  says,  as 
quoted  by  Mr.  George  : 

Such  a  doctrine  is  consistent  with  the  highest  state  of  civilization  ; 
may  be  carried  out  without  involving  a  community  of  goods,  and 
need  cause  no  very  serious  revolution  in  existing  arrangements.  The 
change  required  would  simply  be  a  change  of  landlords.  Separate 
ownership  would  merge  into  the  joint-stock  ownership  of  the  public. 
Instead  of  being  in  the  possession  of  individuals,  the  country  would 
be  held  by  the  great  corporate  body — society.  Instead  of  leasing  his 
acres  from  an  isolated  proprietor,  the  farmer  would  lease  them  from 
the  nation.  Instead  of  paying  his  rent  to  the  agent  of  Sir  John  or  his 
Grace,  he  would  pay  it  to  an  agent  or  deputy  agent  of  the  community. 
Stewards  would  be  public  officials  instead  of  private  ones,  and  ten- 
ancy the  only  land  tenure.  A  state  of  things  so  ordered  would  be  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  moral  law.  Under  it  all  men  would  be 
equally  landlords ;  all  men  would  be  alike  free  to  become  tenants. 
*  *  *  Clearly,  therefore,  on  such  a  system,  the  earth  might  be 
inclosed,  occupied  and  cultivated  in  entire  subordination  to  the  law 
of  equal  freedom . 


HERBERT   SPENCER.  loO 

The  reader  will  perceive  that  Mr.  Spencer  is  specially 
drawn  to  the  proposed  new  departure  by  the  change  it  is 
to  make  in  landlords,  substituting  the  State,  as  is  sug- 
gested, for  private  individuals.  This  he  evidently  regards 
as  full  of  promise,  and  as  the  chief  thing  to  be  accom- 
plished. Yet  Mr.  Spencer  has  devoted  scores  of  pages  of 
his  well-known  Study  of  Sociology  and  Man  versus  The 
State  to  the  congenial  task  of  showing  that  of  all  agencies 
for  the  wise  and  successful  conduct  of  public  affairs  the 
nation's  officials  are  the  poorest.  And  now  in  this 
paragraph  he  turns  completely  round  and  commends 
substantially  what  he  has  in  other  places  condemned.  He 
would  have  us  believe,  what  he  has,  over  and  over  again, 
very  conclusively  disproved,  that  the  government  would 
make  a  wiser,  better  and  kinder  landlord  than  private 
citizens,  singly  or  as  corporations.  We  cannot  go  with 
him.  His  own  arguments  against  this  belief  have  con- 
vinced us  that  it  is  untenable.  So  far  as  we  are  concerned 
we"  are  not  in  favor  of  any  landlords  at  all,  whether  they 
are  individuals  or  the  state.  We  would  have  it  possible 
for  every  man  to  own  a  place  according  to  the  present  sys- 
tem, by  which,  though  he  has  a  claim  subordinate  to  the 
supreme  will  of  the  people  constitutionally  expressed,  it 
is  a  real  claim,  one  that  he  can  transmit  to  others,  and  of 
which  he  can  only  be  deprived  by  due  process  of  law.  It 
is  said  that  the  system  now  in  vogue  originated  with  the 
Eomans,  from  whom  it  has  descended  to  us.  This,  we 
presume,  will  not  be  denied  ;  and  surely  it  ought  not  to 
prejudice  us  against  it.  Those  astute  legislators  had  an 
opportunity  to  observe  the  working  of  the  opposite  sys- 
tem among  the  Germans,  and  the  fact  that  they  -discarded 
it  goes  very  far  toward  proving  that  they  did  not  regard  it 
as  conducive  to  industry,  prosperity  and  the  happiness  of 
Society.  That  is,  they  rejected  the  communal  for  the 
individual  idea,  and  we  are  not  convinced  by  anything 


160  STUDIES   IN"   SOCIAL   LIFK. 

Mr.  George  has  written  that  they  did  wrong.  But  whether 
they  did  or  not,  we  repeat  it,  we  would  if  we  could  abolish 
odious  landlordism  altogether.  We  are  radical  on  this 
point.  A  rented  place,  whether  the  lessor  is  or  is  not  a 
government  representative,  can  never  be  a  home  in  quite 
the  sense  that  a  house  is  that  is  owned.  The  same  care  is 
never  bestoAved  on  the  former  that  we  lavish  on  the  latter  ; 
and  it  is  questionable  whether  any  number  of  fine-sounding 
words  could  quite  prevail  to  induce  us  to  make  the  same 
improvements  on  the  first  as  on  the  second.  Neglected 
farms,  slovenly  agriculture  and  wretched  husbandry  would 
very  probably  mark  the  new  tenantry  method,  and  evils 
suppressed  in  one  form  would  doubtless  revive,  and  perhaps 
more  virulently,  in  another.  If  the  authorities  managed 
their  land  department  as  they  do  other  departments  there 
would  have  to  be  regulations  and  conditions  which  would 
have  to  be  respected,  and  as  there  is  nothing  more  certain 
than  that  they  would  frequently  be  ignored,  evictions 
would  be  frequent,  and  the  discontent  which  is  now  felt 
toward  individuals  would  break  out  against  the  State. 

Moreover,  it  has  been  found  that  the  hope  of  owning 
something,  especially  a  home,  has  been  one  of  the  might- 
iest forces  for  good  in  the  history  of  progress.  It  has 
often  been  said  that  very  little  of  Communism  is  re- 
tained in  the  nature  of  a  man  who  has  come  into  the 
possession  of  even  a  small  estate.  Such  a  person  talks 
differently,  feels  differently.  He  has  something  to  lose, 
and  he  suddenly  becomes  conservative.  So,  also,  when 
there  is  reasonable  expectation  of  gaining  anything; 
energy,  enterprise,  industry,  and  other  virtues  inter- 
woven inextricably  with  the  public  welfare,  are  evoked  and 
strengthened  by  the  anticipation  of  compensation  in  the 
shape  of  property  for  the  family.  There  is  a  charm  about 
this  that  is  not  possessed  even  by  money-bags  and  bank- 
books, particularly  to  the  lowly  and  poor.  This  is  a  thing 


OWNING   A   HOME.  101 

that  can  be  seen,  measured,  enjoyed,  that  cannot  be  taken 
by  burglars,  and  that  imparts  a  peculiar  dignity  to  the 
household.  Tenantry  is  almost  entirely  destitute  ol  this 
wholesome  influence.  We,  therefore,  do  not  wish  to 
countenance  it  in  any  form.  Every  one  of  intelligence 
knows  what  an  unmitigated  curse  it  has  proved  under  ex- 
isting arrangements,  and  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  evil  would  be  materially  lessened  were 
Mr.  George's  plan  put  in  force.  Away  with  it!  There  is 
no  disguise  it  can  assume,  and  no  plea  that  can  be  offered 
in  its  defense,  that  ought  to  induce  us  to  spare  it  for  a 
moment.  We  cry,  "Down  with  tenantry  and  landlord- 
ism!" There  is  no  promise  of  equality  anywhere  near 
them;  but  only  the  sad  prospect  of  woe  and  wretchedness 
such  as  to-day  fill  Ireland  and  Scotland  with  unrest  and 
fierce  mutterings  of  coming  storms.  The  government, 
after  all  that  can  be  said  about  it,  is  only  a  company  of 
men  acting  under  forms  of  law,  and  the  law  is  usually  no 
more  to  them  than  it  is  to  the  average  citizen.  They 
evade  it,  violate  it,  and  are  generally  as  human  as  any  one 
else.  They  would  not,  therefore,  make  any  better  land- 
lords than  private  parties  do  to-day,  and  having  extraor- 
dinary powers  in  their  hands  might  make  worse.  If  it 
shall  be  said  that  they  would  be  elected  to  office,  and 
that  in  this  way  there  would  be  a  check  on  them,  we  have 
only  to  remark  that  the  insane  land  legislation  of  the 
past  twenty  years,  and  the  numerous  instances  of  corrup- 
tion, have  occurred  under  our  elective  government;  and 
further,  that  rulers  like  Napoleon  III.  have  been  chosen 
by  popular  suffrage,  and  that  in  none  of  these  cases  have 
we  the  least  evidence  that  responsibility  to  the  people 
prevents  those  in  high  positions  from  being  blunderers, 
rascals  or  tyrants. 

In  aiming  to  place  within  the  reach  of  every  one  a 
home  to  be  held  on  the  now  recognized  basis  of  owuer- 
11 


162  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

ship,  it  is  important  that  every  tendency  toward  the  crea- 
tion of  vast  estates  should  be  arrested .-^JfrPossibly  a  candid 
consideration  of  their  ultimate  effect  on  Society,  and  on 
their  own  value  as  well,  may  serve  to  restrain  those  whose 
greed  seems  almost  boundless.  It  is  well  known  that 
they  were  disastrous  in  their  influence  on  the  fortunes  of 
imperial  Rome.  They  were  then  called  "latifundia"  ; 
and  Pliny's  words,  "latifundia  perdidcre  Ital'am"  have 
a  melancholy  significance.  The  Gracchi  faithfully  tried 
to  have  State  lands  reclaimed  and  distributed  among  the 
proletariat,  but  they  failed  ;  and  their  obstinate  attach- 
ment to  the  populace  at  last  proved  fatal  to  themselves. 
The  reform  of  Julius  Caesar  along  the  same  line,  though 
successful  to  some  extent,  was  too  late  to  counteract  the 
evil  it  was  designed  to  remedy.  Enormous  possessions  had 
rooted  out  the  class  of  small  farmers,  whose  interest  in 
the  soil  had  given  them  an  interest  in  the  country,  and 
who  could  generally  be  relied  on  in  times  of  national 
peril.  They  could  not  compete  with  patricians,  and  they 
either  sold,  or  were  driven  out  of,  their  little  holdings. 
With  their  displacement,  while  large  revenues  were  at 
first  derived  from  consolidated  estates,  slaves  and  hirelings 
became  their  successors,  and  under  their  enforced  and 
slovenly  tillage  the  productive  power  of  the  land  declined. 
Moreover,  their  masters,  with  the  increase  of  acreage, 
became  selfish,  dissolute,  arrogant  and  unpatriotic.  Their 
prodigality  impoverished  them,  and  as  the  only  order  of 
men  who  could  have  reclaimed  the  comparative  unpro- 
ductive property  had  been  ruined,  or  had  themselves 
outgrown  all  taste  for  agricultural  pursuits,  and  as  neither 
one  nor  the  other  had  either  loyalty  or  courage  left,  the 
government  succumbed  before  the  vigorous  blows  of  the 
barbarian.  Such  is  history.  It  will  repeat  itself;  and 
there  are  signs  that  it  may  do  so  sooner  than  we  expect. 
The  individuals  or  corporations  in  Europe  and  America 


SMALL  FREEHOLDS.'  163 

that  have  accumulated  mile  upon  mile  of  land  have  ap- 
parently wonderfully  prospered.  They  have  ruined,  or 
are  ruining,  their  small  competitors,  and  seem  to  have 
everything  their  own  way.  But  what  of  the  results  ? 
Let  us  see.  They  are  helping  to  recruit  the  ranks  of 
Socialism,  and  the  growth  of  that  army,  with  its  war-cry 
of  "share  and  share  alike,"  means  the  depreciation  in 
value  of  reality.  Driven  to  desperation  by  the  greed  of 
monopoly,  the  men  who  have  loved  their  country  because 
they  felt  that  it  was  their  country,  will  likely  speedily 
learn  to  join  forces  with  those  who  would  render  monopoly 
impossible  by  annulling  the  right  of  private  property 
entirely.  How  much  think  you  will  "bonanza  farms"  be 
worth  if  the  policy  of  Communism  is  ever  agitated  at  the 
polls  ?  But,  in  addition  to  this,  territorial  concentra- 
tion is  impoverishing  a  multitude  whose  embarrassments 
beggar  other  multitudes,  so  that  the  ability  of  the  home 
market  to  buy  the  produce  of  the  fields  is  declining  while 
the  demands  of  the  foreign  markets  are  not  increasing. 
A.  little  more  of  this  grasping,  and  the  profits  on  crops 
svill  be  so  slight  that  they  will  hardly  pay  to  cultivate, 
and  the  soil  will  become  a  burden  to  the  owner.  They 
will  never  fail  to  remunerate  the  small  farmer  who  grows 
them  for  his  own  consumption,  and  for  the  ordinary  pur- 
poses of  traffic;  but  when  they  are  raised  under  the  con- 
ditions we  have  described,  then  the  purchasers  will  be 
limited,  or,  as  all  must  have  food,  the  price  they  can 
command  will  hardly  compensate  for  the  capital  invested. 
One  of  the  evidences  that  the  extensive  domains  of  our 
times  will  be  broken  up,  or  will  in  the  long  run  fall  to 
pieces,  comes  from  Scotland.  A  Mr.  T.  Purves,  a  capable 
farmer,  and  no  friend  to  Crofters,  informed  a  certain 
Commission  "that  the  present  holdings  are  unreasonably 
large,  that  the  farmers  don't  get  half  the  use  of  the  land 
they  occupy,  and  that  there  should  be  farms  from  £10  up 


164  STUDIES   IK   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

to  £50  or  £100."     Similiar  testimony  comes  from  France. 
M.  Alfred  de  Foville  in  his  recent  volume,  Le  Murcelle- 
ment,  argues  in  favor  of  subdivision,  and  states  that  the 
smaller  farms  have  improved  most,  have  yielded  most  pro- 
duce, and  have  even — although  Balzac  predicted  otherwise 
— multiplied  the  horses  and  cattle  of  the  French  nation. 
In  this  view  of  the  case  M.  Henri  Baudrillart  concurs,  and 
in  his  new  book,  Les  Populations  Agricoles  de  la  France, 
gives  a  cheering  account  of  the  small  peasant  owners  of 
Normandy  and  Brittany.     Then,  what  is  equally  signifi- 
cant, Mr.  Arthur  Arnpld,  Contemporary  Review,  declares 
that  the  price  of  land,  collected  as  it  is  in  immense  bodies, 
in  Great  Britian  is  declining,  though  Mr.  George  thinks 
that  it  is  the  one  thing  ever  appreciating.     The  same 
decline  will  surely  be  experienced  in  America,  although  it 
may  be  postponed  for  some  years;  but  the  question  is,  when 
it  does  come  will  the  people  have  the  means  to  purchase, 
or  will  they  have  any  inclination  left  to  till  the  soil?    In 
England,  according  of  Mr.  Arnold,  many  of  the  great 
estates  are  heavily  mortgaged.     The  figures  he  gives  are: 
capital  invested,  £2,000,000,000;  incumbrance,  some  £400.- 
000,000,  and    the    interest    on    the    indebtedness    about 
£18,000,000  per  annum.     Here  we  have  indications  of 
momentous   changes.      Luxury,  dissipation  and  wild  ex- 
travagance will  inevitably  precipitate  a  crisis,  foreclosures 
will  follow,  and  princely  heritages  will  be  knocked  down 
at  auction  to  the  highest  bidder.     The  hope  is  that  when 
the  crash  comes  the  common  people  will  be  the  buyers; 
for  it  is  claimed  that  the  mortgages  are  largely  held  by 
bankers  who  have  loaned  on  these  securities  the  money  of 
artisans,  who  have  entrusted  their  earnings  to  the  saving 
institutions  they  represent.     It  may  be  so.     But  whether 
it  is  or  not,  these  facts  point  to  one   issue,  namely,  the 
division  and  subdivision  of  these  vast  properties,  which 
have  been  accumulated  at  so  great  a  cost,  not  merely  of 


THE   DUTY   OF   CONGRESS.  105 

money,  but  of  human  suffering  and  degradation  as  well. 
They  cannot  be  perpetuated:  why,  then  go  on  adding  acre 
to  acre  when  continued  coherence  is  impracticable,  and 
especially  as  the  process  is  seriously  injuring  the  agricult- 
ural community,  and  is  entailing  misfortunes  on  the  age 
from  which  it  will  be  exceedingly  difficult  to  recover? 

But  while  we  believe  this  result  to  be  unavoidable,  it 
may  be  slow  in  developing,  particularly  in  America;  alid 
for  this  reason  we  would  like  to  see  some  simple  reforms 
that  might  act  as  a  restraint  or  as  a  corrective.  For  in- 
stance, Congress  should  cease  making  land  grants  to  cor- 
porations, should  rescind  those  already  made  where  the 
conditions  have  not  been  complied  with,  and  should  do 
all  in  its  power  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  home- 
stead law.  Moreover,  a  tax  should  be  imposed  on  all 
lands  exceeding  a  certain  acreage  relatively  higher  than  is 
imposed  on  a  smaller  acreage;  and  as  supplementing  this 
measure,  enactments,  as  recommended  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,  should  prevent  the  descent  of  these  danger- 
ous possessions  intact  from  one  generation  to  another. 
"We  think  it  would  be  well  to  decree  that  at  least  the 
tenth  part  of  every  estate  amounting  to  5,000  acres  and 
over  should  return  to  the  State  for  the  use  of  the  people. 
Ai  the  widow  has  a  portion  determined  by  statute  so 
ought  the  country  to  have;  and  the  portion  inherited  by 
the  country  could  be  sold  at  its  market  value  to  any  per- 
son able  to  buy,  and  the  proceeds  be  used  in  providing 
places  in  the  far  west  at  nominal  sums  for  the  yet  poorer 
classes.  This  provision  would  preclude  the  possibility 
of  the  national  territory  ever  being  permanently  monopo- 
lized, would  always  furnish  a  fresh  supply  of  lands  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  the  homestead  law,  and  would  con- 
stantly remind  the  prosperous  citizen  that  he  is  under 
obligation  to  work  for  the  common  weal  as  well  as  for 
his  family.  Then,  in  addition  to  this,  we  would  have  it 


106  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

enacted  that  no  one  person  should  be  permitted  to  inherit 
over  and  above  a  definite  amount  of  land,  say  three  thou- 
sand acres;  and  that  fortunes  in  money  should  be  broken  up 
and  distributed  in  a  similar  way.  Such  an  arrangement 
would  not  be  unjust.  It  would  not  deprive  the  rich  man 
of  anything  he  could  legitimately  call  his  own,  nor  would 
it  diminish  the  stimulus  to  endeavor;  for  as  long  as  he 
lived  he  could  use  his  wealth  as  he  pleased;  but  it  would 
determine  for  him  in  some  degree  what  disposition  of  his 
property  after  his  death  would  best  serve  the  highest  in- 
terests of  Society. 

Other  remedies  may  probably  be  devised  by  Congress, 
but  even  these  we  are  persuaded  would  be  exceedingly  bene- 
ficial. The  measures  we  have  specified  would  tend  to 
preserve  the  populaton  from  the  blight  of  tenantry;  would 
not  deprive  anyone  who  desired  to  till  the  ground  of  the 
sweet,  stimulating  sense  of  ownership;  would,  in  connec- 
tion with  intelligence,  temperance  and  industrious  habits, 
contribute  toward  the  improvement  of  agriculture;  would 
prevent  the  continuance  of  "  bonanza  farms,"  and  would 
fill  the  unpeopled  west  with  homes  instead  of  abandoning 
sections  of  territory  embracing  more  than  fifty  square 
miles  each,  where  rarely  a  woman  or  a  child  can  be  found 
at  present,  to  mere  food-manufacturing;  and  combined 
with  the  spirit  of  "  mutualism,"  underlying  Socialism, 
would  diminish  poverty,  inspire  hope  and  would  in  the 
course  of  time  realize  far  more  true  equality  than  our 
poor  world  has  ever  known. 

It  may  be  replied  that  in  answering  Mr.  George  we  failed 
to  note  any  marked  abatement  of  social  inequalities 
where  lands  are  held  communally,  or  where  they  are 
subdivided  into  small  properties.  True;  and  we  pointed 
out  this  fact  to  show  that  his  scheme  would  not  necessarily 
and  by  itself  effect  the  marvellous  changes  he  so  confidently 
predicts;  for,  as  we  have  claimed  the  well-being  of  tenants 


CIRCUMSTANCES    AND    CHAIIACTER.  167 

is  determined  as  much  by  themselves,  or  almost  as  much, 
as  it  is  by  their  landlords,  whoever  they  may  be.  Were 
legislation  to  divide  the  public  domain,  and  rent  to  each 
applicant  a  holding,  equality  and  happiness  would  not 
infallibly  ensue.  Such  legislation  might  on  the  whole  be 
favorable  to  these  blessings,  but  their  complete  attainment 
would  depend  on  the  character  of  the  citizen.  In  France 
and  Belgium  the  very  general  division  of  the  land  is  of  itself 
advantageous,  but  ignorance  and  political  abuses  explain 
why  it  is  not  turned  to  better  account.  It  is  the  fault  of 
Mr.  George  that  he  attributes  to  external  conditions  what 
very  largely  is  the  direct  result  of  moral  and  intellectual 
qualities.  He  is  altogether  too  dogmatic  in  his  assertions. 
Had  he  argued  that  an  enlightened,  energetic  people  would 
probably  change  our  civilization  for  the  better  if  they  had 
freer  and  fuller  possession  of  the  soil  than  they  have  in 
England  and  America,  we  would  have  acknowledged  the 
soundness  of  the  hope;  but  when  he  lays  such  stress  on 
mere  communal  ownership  as  he  does,  we  are  warranted  in 
citing  the  example  of  France  or  Russia  to  disprove  his  as-* 
sumption;  nor  are  we  unprepared  to  meet  the  logic  of  our 
own  position.  Were  our  recommendations  carried  out  an 
immense  improvement  in  surroundings  would  be  gained; 
but  apart  from  genuine  manhood  at  the  heart  of  the 
nation  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  would  be  lost  to  a 
very  great  extent.  We  admit  the  value  of  favorable 
circumstances — none  more  so  than  ourselves.  The  evidence 
that  we  appreciate  them  is  supplied  by  the  nature  of  those 
we  have  advocated  ;  and  we  submit  whether  they  are  not 
more  promising  than  those  we  have  criticised.  They  would 
stimulate  industrious  habits  by  the  expectation  of  earning 
a  homestead.  The  people  feeling,  also,  that  all  they  have 
toiled  for  is  really  their  own,  not  to  be  alienated  from 
them,  and  not  to  be  superintended  by  impertinent  offi- 
cials, would  experience  a  sense  of  personal  independence 


1G8  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

which  would  go  very  far  toward  developing  the  vigorous 
intelligence  and  energy  needful  for  the  judicious  improve- 
ment of  their  opportunities.  Therefore,  while  neither 
Mr.  George's  theory  nor  our  own  would  yield  any  remark- 
able benefits  unless  rendered  effective  by  sterling  qualities 
of  mind  and  soul,  yet,  as  ours  encourages  in  some  degree 
a  stalwart  and  self-reliant  type  of  character,  we  must  be 
allowed  to  commend  it  to  public  consideration  and  con- 
fidence ;  and  as  it  harmonizes  with  the  genius  of  the  Amer- 
ican government,  which,  as  we  have  shown,  is  remote  from 
paternalism,  we  feel  that  it  ought  to  be  received  with  satis- 
faction and  hope. 

Not  unlikely  the  discussion  of  these  so-called  remedies 
has  created  the  suspicion  that  perfect  equality  is  impos- 
sible. This  seems  to  be  the  impression  which  the 
Russian  Socialist,  Herzen,  sought  to  convey  in  his  last 
letter  to  the  father  of  Nihilism,  Bakounine,  when  he  used 
these  words:  "If  even  the  bourgeois  world  were  to  be 
blown  up,  after  the  smoke  had  disappeared  and  the  ashes 
been  swept  away,  a  new  but  still  a  bourgeois  one  would 
reappear."  Evidently  he  could  not  conceive  of  Society 
where  the  class  he  refers  to,  in  contradistinction  to  others, 
would  have  no  existence.  If  such  an  author  as  Herzen 
takes  this  position,  there  must  be  overwhelming  reasons 
for  believing  with  Browning,  that  we  cannot  tread  man- 
kind 

Into  a  paste,  and  thereof  make  a  smooth 
Uniform  mound  whereon  to  plant  your  flag, 
The  lily-white,  above  the  blood  and  brains. 

We  agree  with  the  agitator  and  the  poet ;  and  we  are 
persuaded  that  a  little  reflection  will  satisfy  every  candid 
mind  that  some  of  the  distinctions  which  continually 
assert  themselves  are  not  wholly  without  advantage  to  the 
race. 

It  seems  evident  that  social  inequality  at  the  beginning 


ORIGIN    OF    INEQUALITY.  100 

must  have  arisen  from  some  other  kind  of  inequality.  At 
the  dawning  of  time  and  in  the  morning  haze  of  history 
we  discover  gigantic  personages  exercising  lordship 
over  the  many,  and  receiving  from  them  tribute  in 
goods  and  labor.  They  are  head  men,  chiefs,  kings 
and  leaders,  but  whatever  their  title  they  tower  above 
others  ;  they  are  better  fed,  better  clothed,  better  housed, 
and  better  served.  Next  to  them  we  find  subordinate 
orders,  varying  evidently  in  degree  of  rank,  and  yet 
far  removed  from  the  great  body  of  the  people.  In  ac- 
counting for  these  primitive  differences  it  will  not  do  to 
assume  that  they  grew  out  of  personal  property  in  land, 
for  in  many  instances  such  ownership  had  no  existence ; 
and  neither  will  it  do  to  assert  that  they  orignated  in 
violent  usurpations  of  power  for  that  merely  asserts  what 
may  be  a  fact,  but  does  not  explain  how  one  or  a  few  suc- 
ceeded in  such  usurpations  at  the  expense  of  the  multitude. 
We  must  look  back  of  these  inadequate  solutions  of  the 
problem  to  the  actors  themselves ;  and  we  shall  see  that 
they  secured  the  homage  of  their  fellows  through  superior 
wisdom,  cunning,  energy,  courage,  skill  or  strength. 
They  were  greater  in  some  or  all  of  these  respects  than  the 
throngs  around  them,  and  so  were  able  to  convince  their 
judgment,  appeal  to  their  fears,  dazzle  their  imagination 
and  overcome  their  scruples.  That  is,  at  the  first,  social 
inequalities  sprang  from  the  variations  of  human  nature  ; 
for  it  was  as  true  then  as  it  is  now  that  no  two  men  are 
alike,  and  that  each  soul  which  comes  into  the  world, 
while  having  features  in  common  with  all  other  souls,  is 
essentially  new  and  alone,  never  having  had  its  exact 
counterpart  and  never  to  be  followed  by  a  complete  parallel. 
Every  soul  is  an  original,  and  we  can  neither  measure  its 
forces  by  what  we  know  of  others,  nor  clearly  foresee  the 
steps  of  its  career  by  the  light  of  previous  lives.  There 
is  a  large  element  of  mystery  and  uncertainty  connected 


170  STUDIES  IX  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

with  every  new-born  spirit.  If  this  is  so,  and  if,  as  sixty 
centuries  of  history  seem  to  teach,  Society  is  the  counter- 
part of  man's  image,  the  outward  being  the  creation  and 
expression  of  the  inward,  then  it  necessarily  follows  that 
the  inequalities  of  the  one  are  directly  due  to  the  inequal- 
ities of  the  other,  and  cannot  be  evaded. 

In  addition  to  this  it  should  be  remembered  that  social 
inequality  is  often  reversed  and  counterbalanced  by  other 
inequalities.  It  is  not  fixed  and  permanent,  not  unin- 
terrupted in  its  succession,  and  not  confined  indefinitely 
to  any  one  class  of  people.  The  affluent  of  today  were 
not  the  affluent  of  yesterday,  and  the  affluent  of  tomorrow 
will  not  be  the  affluent  of  today.  Fortunes  are  continu- 
ally changing  hands;  "upper  tens"  are  constantly  called 
on  to  give  place  to  new  "upper  tens/'  and  the  summits 
become  the  valleys  and  the  valleys  the  summits.  Society 
is  very  much  like  the  ocean,  where  there  is  a  constant  rise 
and  fall,  and  where  the  drops  of  water  which  at  one 
moment  make  the  crest  of  the  wave,  at  the  next  form  the 
trough  of  the  sea.  Many  families  of  nobility  in  England 
are  only  old  in  name.  Most  of  them  are  of  modern  origin, 
and  are  the  outgrowth  of  successful  business  enterprise. 
The  large  majority  of  the  rich  among  ourselves  created 
their  own  fortunes ;  and  no  small  number  of  the  men  who 
are  leaders  in  statesmanship,  in  literature  and  finance  are 
indebted  to  their  own  energy  and  skill  for  their  success. 
From  this  it  would  seem  that  there  is  a  constant  shifting 
of  possessions  and  privileges ;  that  no  section  of  the  race 
can  claim  their  constant  monopoly ;  that  no  other  section 
is  irrevocably  deprived  of  their  enjoyment,  and  that  their 
attainment  and  retainment  are  determined  by  forces  that 
are  native  to  the  soul  or  which  have  been  developed  in  it. 
You  desire  to  perpetuate  your  fortune  to  your  descendants, 
and  you  may  succeed  in  doing  so  for  a  generation  or  two ; 
but,  unless  you  can  perpetuate  your  ability  as  well,  the 


INEQUALITY   AND    PROGRESS.  171 

time  will  assuredly  arrive  when  a  stronger  man  will  rise 
and  enter  into  the  house  of  your  children's  children  and 
despoil  them  of  their  goods.  Thus  there  is  flux  and 
reflux,  changes  inevitable  and  changes  perpetual ;  and  this 
fact  should  teach  the  high  the  lesson  of  modesty,  and  the 
lowly  the  lesson  of  hope  ;  and  should  convince  both  that  no 
omnipotent  fatality  governs  their  destiny,  ordaining  one  to 
undeserved  elevation  and  dooming  the  other  to  unmerited 
degradation, 

Moreover  it  should  be  observed  that  social  inequalities 
are  not  without  relief  and  compensation  in  some  other 
kinds  of  inequality.  Man's  position  or  surroundings  does 
not  determine  his  happiness  or  misery.  "  Uneasy  is  the 
head  that  wears  a  crown,"  and  uneasy  is  the  heart  of  him 
who  possesses  $73,000,000.  He  is  not  only  assailed  by  the 
impecunious  and  the  desperate,  but  he  is  in  constant  appre- 
hension from  the  plots  and  the  wiles  of  his  sworn  enemies, 
who  are  anxious  to  relieve  him  of  his  superfluous  wealth. 
Your  Vanderbilts  and  Goulds  are  not  necessarily  happy, 
and  neither  are  your  mechanics  and  laborers  necessarily 
wretched.  All  elevations  are  not  fertile,  for  mountains 
there  are  which  are  bleak,  cold,  desolate ;  and  all  depres- 
sions are  not  barren,  for  valleys  there  are,  attractive,  warm 
and  fruitful.  Yea,  of  the  two  we  naturally  look  for  more 
abundant  increase  from  the  vales  than  from  the  hills,  and 
we  cannot  but  feel  that  honest  poverty  will  know  more  of 
peace,  content  and  blissful  calm  than  affluence.  You  may 
have  been  told,  or  you  may  yourselves  have  noticed,  that 
the  physical  inequalities  of  the  globe  are  necessary  to  its 
habitableness ;  and  you  may  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that 
social  inequalities  have  ministered  to  the  progress  of  the 
ages.  Here  we  have  another  compensation  which  we  can- 
not afford  to  overlook.  Mr.  Mallock  argues  that  the  desire 
to  be  superior  to  others  is  the  source  of  endeavors  to  excel 
in  art,  science  and  commerce.  If  it  were  not  possible  to 


172  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

realize  this  desire  it  would  soon  entirely  cease ;  and,  if  it 
ceased,  progress  would  be  indefinitely  interrupted.  But 
the  possibility  of  realizing  it,  of  being  elevated  above  our 
fellows,  implies  a  social  condition  where  there  are  class 
distinctions,  where  there  is  an  upper  and  a  lower,  and 
where  a  man  can  rise  from  the  one  state  to  the  other. 
Inequality  is  therefore  necessary  to  inspire  and  reward 
effort ;  and  the  fruits  of  effort  in  the  direction  of  inven- 
tions, discoveries,  reforms,  react  upon  the  more  dependent 
classes,  and  bring  blessings  to  them  in  lightening  the  bur- 
dens of  labor  and  in  diminishing  its  cares,  and  thus  com- 
pensate them  for  many  of  the  evils  which  are  inseparable 
from  their  lot. 

From  these  reflections  we  may  learn  that  we  cannot 
entirely  destroy  social  inequalities,  even  if  we  would. 
Their  real  foundation  is  not  property,  but  humanity.  To 
abrogate  them  we  must  abrogate  man,  and  that  is  plainly 
impossible.  Also,  we  may  believe  as  they  minister  to  prog- 
ress, that  we  cannot  afford  to  dispense  with  them  altogether. 
But  how  if  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  permanent,  can  they 
be  sufficiently  diminished  or  modified  so  as  to  increase  the 
total  sum  of  earthly  happiness  ? 

This  is  the  real  question  at  issue.  In  part  we  have  fur- 
nished an  answer  to  it  in  what  we  have  said  on  the  subject 
of  Socialism  and  of  State  Landlordism.  Cultivate  the 
spirit  of  mutualism,  and  the  genuine  reciprocity  which 
will  follow  cannot  fail  to  break  down  barriers  that  now 
separate  one  portion  of  the  community  from  the  other ; 
and  place  modest  homes  and  farms  within  the  reach  of 
the  people,  and  extremes  of  destitution  and  despair  will 
at  least  be  much  rarer  than  they  are  at  present.  But, 
in  addition  to  this,  we  must  not  overlook  the  truth  that 
if  we  equalize  man  as  man  we  equalize  Society.  There 
are  distinctions  that  separate  individuals,  such  as  genius, 
natural  aptitudes  and  endowments,  which  can  in  part  be 


EDUCATE  THE   PEOPLE.  173 

developed  and  which  must  be  regarded  as  contributing 
to  the  advancement  of  the  race.  Then  there  is  igno- 
rance, passion,  appetite,  selfishness,  cruelty,  which  differ- 
entiate men,  and  out  of  which  spring  oppressions  and 
every  species  of  wrong  doing.  Let  these  qualifications  and 
these  vicious  tendencies  be  dealt  with  vigorously  and 
fairly ;  let  the  former  be  recognized  and  cultivated,  and 
let  the  latter  be  repressed  and  subdued,  and  a  hopeful 
change  will  be  immediate  and  apparent.  In  a  word, 
educate  —  educate  head  and  heart  —  educate  thoroughly, 
radically,  completely,  mentally,  religiously,  and  with  the 
demands  of  the  age  full  in  view,  and  the  ax  will  be  laid 
at  the  very  root  of  the  worst  types  of  inequality.  Do  not 
be  afraid  of  uniformity  and  monotony  arising  from  such 
education ;  for,  after  we  have  done  all  in  our  power  to 
unify  humanity,  diversity  enough  will  exist  for  all  practical 
purposes.  Educate  thus  comprehensively  the  people  and 
they  will  be  less  dependent  upon  employers,  less  willing 
to  submit  to  outrage,  and  less  liable  to  be  imposed  on  ; 
they  will  be  more  capable  of  attending  to  their  own  affairs, 
of  inaugurating  reforms  in  the  administration  of  public 
justice,  and  of  defending  their  own  rights  from  tyranny ; 
and  they  will  be  better  fitted  to  care  for  their  earnings,  to 
invest  them  judiciously  and  to  save  them  from  the  vortex 
of  dissipation.  Educate  them  in  this  manner,  and  they 
will  command  the  respect  of  all  in  authority,  and  they 
will  create  a  sentiment  which  will  compel  the  impartial 
administration  of  the  law.  Surely,  to  attain  these  ends  is 
to  render  social  inequalities  more  and  more  inappreciable. 
If  it  does  not  destroy  them — and  in  some  sense  they  are 
indestructible — it  does  what  is  just  as  good,  and  perhaps 
better,  it  renovates  them.  And  when  they  are  thus  reno- 
vated, and  survive  only  in  an  inoffensive  form,  and  in  a 
way  indispensable  to  progress,  then  we  shall  substantially 
have  achieved  the  object  for  which  philanthropists  and 


174  STUDIES     IK   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

Christians  have  labored  in  vain  so  long.  Of  the  charac- 
ter of  this  education  and  of  its  agents  we  shall  speak  in  a 
subsequent  paper;  but  it  ought  to  be  said  that  the  doctrine 
here  avowed  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible.  The  Savior 
teaches  it  when  He  declares  the  quality  of  fruitage  to 
depend  on  the  quality  of  the  tree,  and  when  He  lays 
such  stress  as  He  does  on  the  renewal  of  the  soul,  He 
does  not  devote  His  attention  to  surface  measures  of  re- 
form, but  to  a  new  heart,  confident  that  the  regeneration 
of  man  means  the  regeneration  of  civilization.  The  method 
of  our  Lord  at  this  point  differs  radically  from  human 
schemes.  They  attach  undue  and  almost  exclusive  impor- 
tance to  right  circumstances,  He  almost  exclusively  to  right 
principles  and  right  springs  of  action. 

Intimately  related  to  education,  and  growing  out 
of  it,  self-government  would  materially  diminish  the 
distress  of  those  who  suffer  most  from  present  econom- 
ical arrangements.  If  anything  can  be  done  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  hard-worked  poor  by  them- 
selves, it  is  only  right  that  they  should  undertake  it. 
Probably  it  will  be  said  that  they  attempt  much, 
that  they  attend  Socialistic  meetings,  Trades-Union 
gatherings,  seek  to  influence  candidates  for  office,  and 
make  up  crowds  that  hurrah  for  strikers.  Well,  what 
then  ?  We  know  they  do  this ;  but  in  our  opinion 
they  all  the  while  pass  a  simple  remedy  which  lies  at 
their  door — self-control — which  if  duly  appreciated  would 
relieve  them  from  many  of  the  miseries  which  now 
darken  their  lives.  If  they  would  only  save  what  they 
actually  waste  in  stupid  excesses,  the  extremes  which 
now  horrify  us  would  be  less  perceptible  and  less  real. 
As  we  shall  have  to  refer  to  this  subject  again  in  an- 
other connection,  we  shall  only  here  quote  a  few  figures 
relative  to  the  consumption  of  intoxicants  and  tobacco 
in  Great  Britain,  which,  however,  can  be  paralleled  in 


WASTEFUL  WORKMEN.  17b' 

this  country.  According  to  the  most  reliable  estimates,, 
the  expenditure  of  the  British  working  classes  in  drink- 
ing and  smoking  is  not  far  from  £00,000,000,  of  which, 
admitting  that  stimulants  are  needful,  £40,000,000  is: 
mere  extravagant  folly.  This  has  been  called  "  self- 
imposed  taxation,"  and  it  amounts  to  sufficient,  if  wisely 
cared  for,  to  render  the  greater  portion  of  the  population 
independent  of  employers,  to  revolutionize  in  a  few  years 
the  position  of  labor,  and  to  purchase  homes,  and 
to  build  mills  and  factories  for  those  who  can  have  no 
hope  of  owning  anything  so  long  as  they  fritter  away  their 
substance  in  convivial  living.  These  mechanics  and  toilers 
earn,  according  to  Mr.  Greg  and  Mr.  Baxter,  an  aggregate 
income  of  £300,000,000  per  annum,  of  which  they  liter- 
ally throw  away  £40,000,000,  enough  to  make  the  differ- 
ence between  comfort  and  discomfort,  abundance  and 
poverty,  decency  and  indecency.  After  this  what  must 
we  think  of  the  good  judgment  or  integrity  of  those  who 
wish  to  confiscate  the  capital  or  lands  of  others?  If  so 
much  is  squandered  of  what  is  earned  with  many  hard- 
ships, what  would  become  of  the  portions  assigned  without 
toil  and  without  price?  It  is  to  be  feared  that,  like  the 
prodigal,  they  would  waste  their  substance  in  riotous 
living.  They  certainly  are  not  to  be  trusted  with  more, 
especially  with  what  costs  them  nothing,  until  they 
are  more  soberly  economical  in  the  expenditure  of  what 
they  have  received  in  return  for  sweat  of  brow  and  for 
exhausting  endeavors.  "When  so  slight  a  sacrifice  would 
materially  benefit  them,  and  they  do  not  feel  sufficient 
interest  in  themselves  and  their  families  to  make  it,  we 
ought  not  to  be  surprised  that  many  persons  kindly  dis- 
posed toward  them  should  lose  their  solicitude  for  their 
welfare,  and  should  even  abandon  in  despair  legislative 
remedies  proposed  on  their  behalf.  They  might  arrest 
this  awful  drain  on  their  resources  by  their  own  motion, 


176  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

by  an  act  of  intelligent,  resolute,  persistent  volition,  with- 
out revolutionizing  Society,  without  aid  from  government, 
and  without  diverging  from  the  American  laissez  faire 
principle.  And  if  they  would  only  do  this,  many  of  the 
problems  now  harrassing  the  statesman  and  the  philan- 
thropist would  be  a  long  way  on  the  road  toward  solu- 
tion, and  before  three  generations  had  passed  the  artisan 
classes  would  be  educated,  and  they  would  be  pleasantly 
housed,  and  above  all,  they  would  be  capitalists  them- 
selves and  would  exert  a  decisive  influence  on  the  debate 
between  capital  and  labor.  But  if  they  are  not  willing  to 
do  this  much  that  their  condition  may  be  brightened,  and 
that  the  distance  between  them  and  their  neighbors  may 
be  lessened,  we  surely  must  doubt  whether  any  outside 
interference,  private  or  official,  could  be  successful  in  sup- 
pressing the  much  complained  of  inequalities. 

There  is  another  measure  by  which  the  end  sought, 
and  which  it.  is  the  object  of  this  paper  to  promote,  may 
be  in  some  good  degree  attained.  We  refer  to  cooperation, 
which  has  been  defined  by  its  foremost  exponent,  George 
Jacob  Holyoake,  as  "a  new  force  in  industry,  which 
obtains  competency  without  mendicancy,  and  gives  equal 
rewards  by  equalizing  fortunes."  When  lecturing  in  New 
York  he  added  this  further  explanation  for  the  benefit  of 
our  general  public  who  are  not  well  informed  on  the 
subject: 

Cooperation  is  often  likened  to  two  hounds  who  unite  in  catch- 
ing hares,  and  thus  secure  more  than  the}'  could  separately.  There 
is  this  difference  between  cooperation  and  hare  hunting:  The  hounds 
catch  the  hares  for  the  hunter;  we  catch  the  hares  with  the  intention 
of  eating  them  ourselves.  Cooperation  means  this:  A  number  of 
jxTsons  join  together  for  the  purpose,  by  acts  of  economy,  concert 
and  good  will,  of  obtaining  certain  advantages,  and  of  dividing  the 
results  among  themselves,  each  taking  a  share  proportionate  to 
the  industry  and  capital  he  has  applied  in  helping  out  the  scheme. 
There  are  three  ways  in  which  cooperation  is  applied — by  stores,  by 


THE   PARISIAN   COMMUTE.  177 

workshops  and  by  banks.  In  France  they  excel  in  cooperation  in 
the  workshop;  in  Germany  in  the  bank,  and  in  England  in  the  store, 
while  in  America  they  excel  in  none  of  the  three.  You  are  too  rich 
to  care  about  humble  gain,  and  you  are  so  well  informed  that  it  is 
impossible  to  add  to  your  stock  of  social  information. 

This  sarcastic  allusion  to  our  self-sufficiency  may  not 
be  undeserved;  but  that  we  may  no  longer  be  guilty  of 
neglecting  a  means  which  has  been  tested  with  advantage 
elsewhere,  let  us  familiarize  ourselves  somewhat  with  its 
character  and  workings. 

An  unknown  writer  in  the  London  Quarterly  Review 
relates  a  conversation  he  had  with  a  member  of  the  Par- 
isian Commune,  who  spoke  of  the  aims  and  inspiration  of 
its  leaders  in  the  following  terms: 

The  artisans  and  poorer  classes  of  France — i.  e.,  of  Paris  and  the 
great  towns  are  ground  down  (exploite)  by  the  capitalists,  their 
employers;  they  wish  to  reap  the  fruits  of  their  own  labor;  they 
wish,  in  fact,  to  work  for  their  own  benefit  and  not  for  that  of  others; 
they  think  that  all  capital  ought  to  belong  to  the  State,  and  be  lent 
out  on  moderate  interest  to  associations  of  operatives,  who  would 
thus  enter  into  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  products  of  their  own 
industry .  They  believe  that  only  a  republic,  of  which  the  working 
classes  should  be  the  directors,  would  give  them  this  result;  and  they 
know  that  a  republic  of  this  sort  can  only  be  established  by  a  revolu- 
tion, and  therefore  they  are  wiling  to  hazard  everything  and  upset 
everything  in  the  cause  of  such  a  revolution. 

But  all  this  can  be  accomplished  without  troubling  and 
burdening  the  State,  without  overthrowing  administra- 
tions, or  engaging  in  sanguinary  strife.  Any  body  of 
workmen  who  can  lay  by  money  and  club  together,  or  can 
obtain  credit,  may  start  in  business  for  themselves,  and 
it  is  surely  not  worth  while  to  upset  the  ruling  powers  for 
the  sake  of  trying  a  similar  experiment  on  a  larger  scale, 
and  with  many  perils  threatening  failure  in  the  way. 
While  it  is  substantially  the  same  in  principle  with  the 
Communist's  plan,  we  believe  that  cooperation,  voluntary 
13 


178  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

and  private,  is  infinitely  of  more  value  to  the  nation. 
Wherever  these  partnerships  are  successful  they  do  good 
in  various  ways.  They  teach  and  train  the  working 
classes  in  the  management  of  business,  impart  ideas  of  its 
difficulties  and  its  drawbacks.  Moreover,  they  promote 
forethought  in  the  operative,  and  generally  add  to  his 
income;  for  by  becoming  employer  and  virtually  capitalist 
he  reaps  a  fair  share  of  the  capitalist's  gain.  Now  there  is 
no  reason  why  these  partnerships  should  not  become  com- 
mon. If  English  , workmen  would  only  moderate  their 
drink  and  tobacco  bills,  in  a  few  years  they  could  save 
£500  each,  and  ten  of  them  combining  would  have  £5,000 
capital,  and  they  would  have  another  £5,000  in  credit  due 
to  their  character,  that  is,  to  their  temperance  and  fru- 
gality. And  all. this  is  as  possible  to  the  American  as  to 
the  Englishman.  Neither  is  there  any  reason  why  work- 
men, as  their  education  improves  and  their  habits  mend, 
as  they  learn  to  govern  themselves  and  to  confide  in  each 
other,  should  not  combine  for  the  majority  of  industrial 
occupations  without  a  master,  and  in  fact,  be  their  own 
employers  and  select  their  own  overseers.  Mr.  Lyman 
Abbott  in  the  Century  has  a  right  to  reprove  the  mechanics 
and  laborers  of  our  country  for  their  reluctance  to  thus 
unite  together  for  business  and  profit,  while  they  are  ready 
to  combine  for  every  other  conceivable  purpose,  especially 
to  strike  for  higher  wages.  And  we  perhaps  cannot  do 
better  than  to  quote  his  own  earnest  words,  which  show 
how  through  cooperation  all  may  be  helped.  He  says: 

You  combine  only  that  you  rnay  not  work.  In  one  summer's 
telegraphic  strike  you  spent  $400,000  for  the  right  to  be  idle.  Why 
did  you  not  expend  it  for  the  right  to  be  independent?  Half  a  mil- 
lion dollars,  plus  all  the  best  telegraphic  talent  in  the  United  States, 
with  the  sympathies  of  the  nation  as  a  reserve,  combined  to  establish 
postal  telegraphy,  might  have  given  you  success  instead  of  failure. 
Strike,  not  for  better  wages  in  servitude,  but  for  independence.  Or- 
ganize, not  to  be  idle,  but  to  be  busy.  Combine  not  against  your 


GEORGE  JACOB  HOLYOAKE.  1?9 

employers,  but  that  you  rnay  employ  yourselves.  You  battle  not 
for  the  rights  of  labor,  but  for  the  right  not  to  labor;  it  is  a  barren, 
fruitless  right,  not  worth  fighting  for.  Victory  is  as  bad  as  defeat. 
For  combination  put  cooperation;  for  few  hours  and  fair  wages  put 
independence;  for  a  right  to  be  idle  put  power  to  work.  Make  your- 
selves capitalists,  combine  your  capital  with  your  industry,  and  add 
to  it  by  your  credit,  and  so  become  your  own  masters. 

Very  few  of  the  toiling  masses  ever  reflect  on  these 
things,  very  few  know  their  own  power,  or  regard  such 
suggestions  as  practicable.  Yet  they  are;  they  have  been 
tried  over  and  over  again  with  success,  and  they  only  need 
a  general  and  earnest  adoption  for  a  silent,  bloodless  revo- 
lution to  be  wrought,  and  for  all  classes  to  be  brought 
together  in  closer  relations  and  on  more  friendly  terms, 
than  are  common  today. 

Something  of  the  process  and  promise  of  these  associa- 
tions Mr.  Holyoake  has  presented,  and  it  may  be  well  to 
confirm  our  hopes  by  what  he  has  written.  His  words  are: 

Cooperation  means  that  many  persons  contribute  separately  and 
individually  to  one  end  and  that  end  is  the  creation  of  new  capital, 
which  each  person  contributing  shall  share.  All  are  in  earnest ;  all 
do  their  best ;  each  one  works,  and  each  one  carries  away  his  full 
share  of  the  profits.  Cooperation  makes  profit  by  economy. 

In  forming  a  cooperative  store  in  England  a  few  persons  assemble 
and  explain  to  those  who  don't  know  it  already  that  it  is  desirable  for 
them  to  band  together  to  secure  purity  of  the  goods  which  they  buy. 
fairness  in  weighing  and  measuring,  avoidance  of  anxiety  about  being 
poisoned  or  cheated,  and  the  creation  of  new  capital.  They  each  con- 
tribute a  small  amount  of  money  to  start  the  store,  it  being  desirable 
to  start  in  a  small  way  at  first  and  with  as  many  subscribers  as  pos- 
sible. None  of  the  money  is  begged  or  borrowed  or  received  as  a  gift. 
A  small,  cheap  place  is  taken,  and  service  is  voluntary  in  the  new 
store  at  first.  The  subscribers  find  that  the  more  they  trade  at  the 
store  the  greater  are  the  profits,  so  they  all  become  propagandists  to 
get  new  purchasers  and  subscribers.  There  is  therefore  no  need  of 
expense  for  advertising.  The  average  profits  are  ten  per  cent.  Of 
this,  five  per  cent  is  given  to  the  purchasers  according  to  the  amount 
each  one  purchases.  A  part  of  the  profit  is  set  aside  for  rent,  another 
part  for  a  rainy  day,  and  two  and  a  half  per  cent  for  an  educational 


180  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

fund  for  the  members  of  the  association.  In  Leeds  the  Association 
has  18,000  buyers,  in  Halifax  12,000,  and  in  Rochdale  still  more.  In 
Rochdale  the  store  makes  a  profit  of  £50,000  a  year.  It  would  be 
considered  a  grand  and  noble  deed  if  a  rich  man  should  -give  to  the 
workingmen  of  a  city  $250,000  a  year.  But  is  it  not  nobler  and 
grander  for  the  workingmen  to  give  to  themselves  ?  In  Manchester 
the  store  gave  its  members  a  profit  of  £21,000  and  set  aside  £300  for 
persons  who  were  not  members,  £600  for  education,  £600  for  the 
servants  of  the  association,  £400  for  a  reserve  fund,  and  sums  ranging 
from  five  to  ten  guineas  for  different  charitable  purposes. 

These  figures  are  inspiring,  and  fully  bear  out  the  ex- 
pectations we  have  expressed.  And  though  the  coopera- 
tive system  in  America  has  not  been  as  prominent  as  in 
England,  and  has  likewise  suffered  from  incompetence 
and  even  dishonesty,  its  record  is  far  from  discouraging. 
We  hear  of  a  New  Bedford  store  of  this  kind  making  in 
1849  a  total  sale  of  $31,279.64,  which  compares  very  favor- 
ably with  some  English  houses.  There  were  several  coop- 
erative divisions  in  New  England  in  1851,  and  they  sold  in 
that  year  $619,633.16  ;  and  in  1852  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  divisions  received  from  purchasers  $1,696,825.46. 
The  profits  from  the  Natick  store  are  about  $3.60  on  every 
$10  share,  a  proof  that  investments  in  such  establishments 
yield  a  large  dividend.  The  president  of  the  National 
Council,  speaking  in  Syracuse,  March,  1877,  said  : 

Ninety-four  (94)  councils,  selected  from  the  whole,  report  a  mem- 
bership of  7,273,  and  with  an  average  capital  of  only  $884,  did  a 
business  last  year  of  $1,089,372.55.  This  was  equal  to  a  saving  of  $21 
to  every  man  and  woman  belonging  to  these  councils.  It  is  safe  to 
assume  that  the  unreported  sales  will  swell  the  amount  to  at  least 
$3,000,000,  which,  at  the  same  ratio  of  profit  as  above  reported,  would 
make  a  saving  of  $420,000. 

So,  also,  the  Raritan  Woolen  Mills  Cooperative  Associa- 
tion sold  in  1880,  $95,821.39  of  goods,  and  returned  a 
large  profit  to  the  shareholders.  These  instances  and 
many  more  that  could  be  cited  prove  Mr.  Barnard  to  be 


POSSIBILITIES   OF   CO-OPERATIOX.  181 

in  the  wrong  when  he  asserts  that  "  in  this  country  dis- 
tributive cooperation  has  been  marked  by  almost  utter 
failure."  This  is  not  the  case,  though  we  admit  it  has  not 
been  as  successful  as  it  should  have  been.  The  mind  of 
the  people  has  been  so  frequently  distracted  by  political 
remedies,  remedies  requiring  no  particular  sacrifice  of  ease 
and  no  special  exercise  of  thought,  that  it  has  never  vigor- 
ously grasped  the  cooperative  method,  and  never  fully 
realized  that  it  can  do  all  that  government  can,  and  that, 
too,  without  intrenching  on  the  independence  of  the  citizen. 
Today  we  believe  that  a  change  is  taking  place  in  the 
public  estimation  of  this  subject.  We  sincerely  trust  it 
may  continue.  If  it  shall,  and  if  we  can  be  persuaded 
generally  to  employ  this  "  new  industrial  force,"  as  Holy- 
oake  calls  it,  then  the  wretched  extremes  of  want  and  des- 
pair will  gradually  disappear,  and  something  more  like 
brotherhood  in  fortune  and  in  hope  prevail. 

This  would  indeed  be  a  great  step  in  advance,  but  if 
not  supplemented  by  another  it  would  undoubtedly  fail  in 
being  as  permanently  beneficial  as  it  should  and  might 
be.  That  which  is  needful  to  carry  forward  what  it 
inaugurates  is  absolute  equality  of  all  persons  before  the 
bar  of  justice.  We  have  protested  against  discriminating 
legislation,  so  do  we  now  express  our  condemnation  of  dis- 
criminations in  the  execution  of  law.  Let  every  man  be 
judged  on  his  intrinsic  merits,  not  by  his  extrinsic  value. 
Justice  ought  to  have  her  eyes  bandaged  so  that  she  can- 
not see  the  clothes  or  purse  of  the  accused.  We  may 
be  told  that  the  bandage  has  not  been  removed;  but 
though  this  may  be  the  case,  we  fear  she  can  see  under 
the  handkerchief  that  is  over  her  eyes,  especially  when 
bloated  affluence  bustles  into  the  criminal  dock.  She  has 
quick  discernment,  and  knows  a  beggar  from  a  money- 
lord  in  a  moment.  The  former  is  ever  made  to  feel  that 
he  is  an  intruder,  that  he  has  no  right  in  court,  and  that 


182  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL    LIFE. 

uncomplainingly,  if  not  with  gratitude,  he  ought  to  sub- 
mit to  be  snubbed  by  his  honor,  to  be  browbeaten  by  the 
attorney,  and  to  be  clubbed  or  kicked  by  the  policemen. 
He  is  made  to  feel  that  the  entire  machinery  and  para- 
phernalia of  justice  are  opposed  to  him,  and  that,  however, 
he  may  have  been  wronged,  he  has  nothing  to  expect  from 
them,  and  if  not  careful  has  everything  to  fear.  Many, 
therefore,  oppressed  by  business  tyrants,  feel  that  they  dare 
not  take  an  appeal  to  where  sits  enthroned  the  majesty 
of  law.  Reforms  are  demanded  in  the  administration  of 
this  same  law,  so  that  it  may  be  less  sordid  and  more  use- 
ful, less  formal  and  more  sympathetic,  less  aristocratic 
and  more  popular.  In  olden  times  the  suffering  poor 
could  arrest  the  royal  progress  and  obtain  a  hearing;  but 
if  a  sewing-girl,  plundered  of  her  wages,  seeks  protection 
today  she  will  very  likely  be  fined  for  disturbing  the 
court  or  be  sent  to  bridewell.  The  fact  is,  the  indigent 
defrauded  man  has  little  if  any  chance  against  capital; 
and  the  wealthy  scoundrel  has  little  to  apprehend  from 
the  prosecution  set  in  motion  by  the  wretched  maiden  he 
has  ruined.  During  the  trial  of  a  great  many  cases  the 
counsel  engaged  can  scarcely  refrain  from  laughing  at  each 
other  and  at  the  legal  farce  in  which  they  are  playing 
amusing  parts,  and  over  which  his  honor  looks  quite  droll, 
while  only  the  spectators  wear  a  somber,  semi-tragical  air. 
Surely  the  scenes  ordinarily  enacted  in  police  stations  and 
court  rooms,  and  many  of  the  decisions  rendered  by  the 
bench,  do  not  represent  justice  as  it  should  be,  but  rather 
a  horrible  burlesque  of  its  dignity  and  functions.  It  is 
now  as  when  Shakespeare  wrote — 

In  the  corrupted  currents  of  this  world 
Offense's  gilded  hand  may  shove  by  justice; 
And  oft  'tis  seen,  the  wicked  prize  itself'' 
Buys  out  the  law.     *    *    * 

Plate  sin  with  gold, 


ARBITRATION    AND   CONCILIATION.  183 

And  the  strong  lance  of  justice  hurtless  breaks.  , 
Arm  it  in  rags,  a  pigmy's  straw  doth  pierce  it. 

And  if  it  is,  the  entire  nation  should  rise  in  its  might  and 
demand  correction,  alteration  and  amendment;  the  vindi- 
cation of  right,  however  lowly,  and  the  condemnation  of 
wrong,  however  haughty.  Many  legal  gentlemen  have 
seen  with  perfect  distinctness  the  pressing  need  that  exists 
for  a  thorough  revision  of  the  Code,  especially  for  its  sim- 
plification, and  for  improvements  in  methods  of  admin- 
istration. They  know  as  well  as  we  do  that  we  are  cum- 
bered with  superfluous  statutes,  endless  precedents,  be- 
wildering complications,  and  tedious  circumlocutions  that 
render  litigation  not  only  appallingly  expensive  but  amaz- 
ingly slow.  A  country  like  ours  ought  to  be  'ashamed 
to  tolerate  such  a  state  of  things.  Public  men  must  be 
familiar  with  the  fact  that  we  are  governed  by  various 
institutions  which  date  back  to  the  Eomaus,  or  to  Eng- 
land's darkest  period,  and  that  we  have  never  made  a  suf- 
ficient effort  to  decide  on  their  fitness  for  our  nation,  nor 
have  taken  adequate  pains  to  sift  out  from  them  those 
things  that  are  vicious  and  essentially  unrepublican.  We 
hold  that  it  is  their  duty  to  move  in  the  matter.  In  their 
positions  of  influence  they  should  seek  such  reforms  in 
the  laws  and  in  their  equal  enforcement  that  the  humblest 
citizen  could  feel  that  his  interests  are  guarded  by  them, 
and  that  he  could  secure  their  friendly  aid  and  support, 
though  without  a  penny  to  invest  his  case  with  a  glitter 
of  interest  before  the  courts. 

But  while  the  value  of  a  radical  change  of  this  general 
character  is  commonly  acknowledged  to  be  indispensable, 
and  one  that  ought  to  be  inaugurated  by  Congress,  there  is 
another,  a  departure  quite  a  novelty  in  this  land,  which 
ought  to  be  studied  and  then  put  in  operation  by  the  em- 
ployed and  their  employers.  We  refer  to  what  is  known 
in  England  as  the  "Boards  of  Conciliation/'  and  in 


184  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

France  as  "La  Conseils  de  Prud'hommes."  Concerning 
the  former  we  have  this  suggestive  statement  in  the  Lon- 
don Quarterly  Review: 

It  is  not  very  easy  to  understand  what  more  can  be  wanted  in  the 
shape  of  effective  representation  of  the  feelings  and  interests  of 
employed  and  ^employers  than  such  an  agency  as  has  for  some  years 
been  supplied  by  the  Boards  of  Conciliation  established  in  Notting- 
ham, the  Staffordshire  potteries  and  Wolverhampton,  of  the  satisfac- 
tory working  of  which  full  evidence  was  given  to  the  Trades' 
Union  Commissioners  by  Mr.  Mundella,  M.  P.,  Mr.  Hollius  and  Mr. 
Rupert  Kettle.  •'  These  Board,"  say  the  Commissioners  in  their  final 
report,  "require  no  complicated  machinery,  no  novel  division  of 
profits,  no  new  mode  of  conducting  business ;  they  need  no  Act  of 
Parliament,  no  legal  powers  or  penalties.  All  that  is  needed  is  that 
certain  representative  employers  and  workmen  should  meet  at  regular 
stated  times  and  amicably  discuss  around  a  table  the  common  interests 
of  their  common  trade  or  business.  There  is  not  a  trade  or  business 
in  the  United  Kingdom  in  which  this  system  might  not  at  once  be 
adopted;  and  we  see  no  reason  why,  in  every  case,  results  should  not 
follow  from  the  establishment  of  Boards  of  Conciliation  as  satisfactory 
as  those  at  Nottingham  and  in  the  potteries  to  which  we  have  before 
referred.  Under  such  a  system  we  should  look  hopefully  for  a  peace- 
ful, prosperous  future  for  the  industry  of  this  country. " 

Since  the  establishment  of  these  boards- the  government 
has  been  constrained  to  amend  the  labor  laws  by  the  pass- 
ing of  the  Employers'  and  Workmen's  Act,  and  of  the  Con- 
spiracy and  Protection  of  Property  Act,  thus  extending 
unusual  help,  to  the  most  dependent  portion  of  community. 
In  France  TJie  Conseils  are  a  much  more  perfect  organiza- 
tion, and  occupy  a  far  more  prominent  position  before  the 
public.  The  present  law  under  which  they  are  organized 
and  worked  dates  from  1853.  Where  such  a  council  is  to 
be  formed  a  memorial  is  sent  to  the  Minister  of  Commerce 
by  the  local  authorities.  The  municipality  has  to  bear  the 
cost  of  establishing,  including  offices  and  courts.  The  out- 
lay for  the  year  is  estimated  by  the  president,  and  is  sent 
to  the  mayor,  and.  is  included  in  his  budget.  No  one 


ARBITRATION    IN   FRANCE.  18-") 

can  hold  the  office  of  president  unless  he  has  never  been 
convicted  of  crime,  misdemeanors,  breaches  of  trust,  or 
offenses  against  morality  and  decency,  and  unless  he  is 
guiltless  of  commercial  frauds,  false  weights,  adulterations, 
keeping  gaming  tables  and  disorderly  houses.  Each  Coun- 
cil is  divided  into  two  chambers,  called,  respectively,  the 
Private  and  the  General  office.  The  former  consists  of  two 
members,  an  employer  and  a  workman,  and  its  duty  is  to 
conciliate  the  parties  who  come  before  it.  In  case  of  fail- 
ure these  parties  go  before  the  General  Council,  composed 
of  an  equal  number  of  masters  and  workmen,  five  forming 
a  quorum.  Always  the  affair  in  dispute  must  be  connected 
with  business,  and  with  contracts  about  which  there  has 
been  some  misunderstanding.  Appeals  may  be  taken  from 
this  tribunal  to  the  Commercial  Court,  or  if  need  be,  to  the 
Court  of  Cassation.  These  appeals  are  very  rare,  the  con- 
tending sides  being  usually  satisfied  with  the  arbitration; 
and  questioning  very  seriously  whether  they  would  gain  any- 
thing by  further  agitation,  they  prefer  to  submit  to  the  de- 
crees already  passed  in  their  case.  It  is  also  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  this  species  of  litigation  is  exceedingly  cheap, 
and  is  at  the  service  of  the  poorest.  We  give  a  table  of  fees 
in  English  shillings  and  pence  that  its  moderation  in  price 
may  be  seen: 

To  TIIE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  ^ 

For  the  letter  of  invitation  to  attend 0    3 

For  each  page  of  copies  of  papers  sent 0    4 

For  a  copy  of  the  minutes  certifying  non-conciliation 0    8 

To  THE  USHER  OP  THE  COUNCIL. 
For  each  citation  (void  in  case  the  letter  of  invitation  fails  to 

secure  attendance) 1    0 

For  the  notification  of  a  judgment 1    5 

In  case  the  parties  live  more  than  three  miles  from  the 
court  the  usher  is  allowed  for  each  six  miles: 

For  the  citation 1     5 

For  the  notifica,tiou. . . , 1    8 


186  STUDIES    IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

The  reader  will  appreciate  this  list  of  prices  when  he  is 
told  that  the  only  fee  paid  in  ordinary  cases  is  the  first  on 
the  list,  threepence,  or  about  six  cents  and  a  half.  Per- 
haps, also,  a  glance  at  the  statistics,  which  give  a  fair  idea 
of  these  courts  in  operation,  may  be  advisable,  if  a  similar 
movement  should  be  commenced  in  America. 

From  the  Contemporary  Review  we  gather  these  figures: 

Since  the  establishment  of  the  system  the  number  of  courts  has 
largely  increased,  there  having  been  62  in  1844,  and  at  the  present  time 
about  132.  The  cases  heard  in  private  sittings  have  fluctuated  during 
different  periods;  but  on  the  whole  have  had  a  tendency  to  increase, 
especially  since  1880,  in  which  year  the  figures  were  89,429.  Of  these 
78  per  cent  were  disposed  of  in  12  manufacturing  centers.  Paris,  with 
4  Prud'homme  Courts,  had  16,757  cases;  Lyons,  2,969:  St.  Etienne, 
1,513;  Roubaix,  1,414;  Havre,  1,303;  Bordeaux,  1,060;  Lille,  812;  El- 
boeuf,  737;  Limoges,  782;  Marseilles,  601;  St.  Quentin,  520;  Besancon, 
501;  the  total  number  of  these  cases  being  28,969.  Out  of  every  100 
cases  brought  before  the  Court  of  Conciliation  59  related  to  wages; 
13  to  dismissals;  10  to  misbehavior;  5  to  disputes  about  apprentice- 
ship, and  13  to  various  other  points.  On  an  average  about  a  fourth 
of  the  complaints  were  withdrawn  before  hearing 

This  is  what  we  call  an  encouraging  record.  There  is 
surely  as  much  need  for  such  an  institution  in  this  country 
as  there  is  in  Europe.  Let  it  be  called  by  whatever  name 
the  public  may  delight  in,  but  let  it  be  in  truth  an  "  Arbi- 
tration Bureau,31*  where  the  poor  can  rehearse  their  wrongs, 
and  where  the  rich  will  be  strictly  held  to  their  obliga- 
tions, and  where  justice  can  be  meted  out  to  all.  We 
rejoice  that  steps  are  already  being  taken  in  this  direc- 
tion, and  we  trust,  even  if  President  Cleveland's  plan  is 
not  adopted,  that  some  other  will  be  carefully  devised 
by  the  representatives  of  labor  and  manufacturing 
organizations,  and  Arbitration  Courts  or  Committees  be 
established  throughout  our  land.  An  arrangement  of 
this  kind  would  be  conducive  to  peace  and  happiness. 
The  number  of  misunderstandings  would  decrease  if  it 
were  known  that  they  would  be  reviewed;  and  few  employers 


THE    EIGHT-HOUR    DAY.  187 

would  attempt  on  some  pretext  to  rob  workmen  and  work- 
ing women  were  they  certain  that  their  meanness  would 
assuredly  be  published  far  and  wide;  and  few  wage- workers 
would  rush  into  senseless  and  expensive  strikes  if  they  re- 
alized that  their  recklessness  would  expose  them  to  prompt 
arraignment  and  condemnation.  Let  us  by  all  means 
have  something  like  the  Conseils  de  Prud'hommes.  They 
would  do  us  all  good.  They  would  abate  abuses;  they 
would  force  considerable  more  humanity  into  factories  and 
shops  and  more  common  sense  into  the  heads  of  labor  re- 
formers than  is  found  there  now;  they  would  lead  to  a  more 
complete  understanding  between  the  parties  concerned  in 
production;  they  would  tend  to  much  cordial  and  mutu- 
ally appreciative  interest  between  thinkers  and  workers, 
and  would  rapidly  break  down  many  obnoxious  distinc- 
tions which  now  seem  to  render  impracticable  anything 
resembling  brotherhood. 

On  this  point  nothing  more  need  be  said  at  present. 
There  is,  however,  another  movement  which  has  some- 
what grown  in  public  favor  of  late,  concerning  which  we 
ought  candidly  and  seriously  to  think.  What  we  refer  to 
specially  is  the  question  of  how  many  hours  should  con- 
stitute a  day's  lawful  work.  For  instance,  at  present 
some  street-car  conductors  are  on  duty  from  fourteen 
to  sixteen  hours;  and  many  women,  to  earn  enough  for 
a  Avretched  support,  have  to  toil  pretty  nearly  through 
sixteen  and  eighteen  hours,  and  it  is  evident  that  these 
people  can  never  rise  in  the  social  scale.  What  oppor- 
tunity have  they  for  reading  or  reflection,  what  for 
family  duties,  the  care  of  children  and  the  repair  of  worn- 
out  clothing?  None.  They  must  live  as  semi-barbarians, 
bring  up  their  children  in  the  same  way  and  grow  bitter, 
heart-sick  and  dangerous.  Many  clerks  are  taxed  beyond 
their  strength,  and  as  we  look  upon  the  faded  forms  of 
young  men  and  young  women  behind  the  counter  we  cannot 


188  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

refrain  from  feeling  that  we  have  reached  an  era  when 
humanity  is  generally  valued  less  than  gold.  "Were  it  not 
so  stores  would  not  remain  open  as  frequently  as  they  do 
at  night,  and  factories  would  not  be  run  as  much  as  they 
now  are  by  gaslight.  Everywhere  complaints  are  numer- 
ous that  time  is  monopolized  beyond  all  reason  to  coin 
riches  for  employers.  This  protracted  service  is  deleteri- 
ous. First,  it  ministers  to  disease;  secondly,  it  discour- 
ages, for  it  allows  no  place  for  self -improvement;  and 
thirdly,  it  drives  thousands  to  the  excessive  use  of  strong 
drink.  This  last  statement  reminds  us  of  an  objection 
that  is  made  to  diminished  hours  of  labor.  Sometimes  it 
is  said  that  a  shorter  day  of  toil  leaves  multitudes  the  op- 
portunity of  spending  more  time  in  saloons  than  they 
otherwise  would;  but  such  objectors  never  stop  to  con- 
sider the  patent  fact  that  the  excessive  fatigue  and  conse- 
quent exhaustion  from  prolonged  toil  drive  more  persons  to 
dissipation  than  a  more  considerate  system  would.  These 
overburdened  ones,  in  many  instances,  feel  very  much  like 
slaves;  they  lose  their  self  respect  and  abandon  themselves 
to  reckless  courses.  It  is  a  surprise  to  us  that  street-car 
companies  ever  have  a  sober  man  in  their  employment. 
They  are  so  harsh,  so  autocratic,  so  penurious,  and  are  so 
much  more  careful  of  the  cattle  they  use  than  they  are  of 
the  men,  that  we  cannot  but  suspect  them  of  classing  all 
together  as  animals;  and  we  cannot  but  wonder  that  any 
of  these  human  animals  can  keep  away  from  the  degrading 
swill  troughs  of  intemperance.  Also,  it  is  somehow  rarely 
thought  of  that  the  extension  of  a  working  day  beyond 
right  and  reason  excludes  many  persons  from  the  labor 
market,  makes  not  a  few  of  them  paupers,  and  goes  far 
toward  making  them  loungers  and  loafers.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  eight-hour  principle  will  give  employment  to  a 
larger  number  of  people  than  is  possible  now,  will  afford 
them  sufficient  time  to  make  substantial  personal  improve- 


ECONOMIC    PRINCIPLES.  189 

ment,  and  will  redeem  their  pursuits  from  much  that  is 
debasing  and  depressing. 

During  the  agitation  of  this  question  in  Chicago  some 
curious  facts  were  brought  to  light  and  some  singular 
statements  made.  One  man  asserted  that  he  had  been 
married  three  years  and  had  never  seen  his  family  by  day- 
light ;  and  another  declared  that  he  had  to  work  from  7 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  10  at  night,  and  on  Sundays 
until  4  p.  m.  He  added  that  even  then  his  "boss  "was 
sad  Avhen  he  saw  the  store  about  to  close.  An  article  also 
appeared  at  the  time  of  the  discussion  in  the  Telegram 
giving  an  account  of  the  eight-hour  day  in  Australia, 
where  it  went  into  force  in  1855,  and  where,  according  to 
the  figures  given,  it  had  greatly  contributed  to  the 
material  and  moral  prosperity  of  that  country.  But  the 
clearest  and  most  comprehensive  review  of  the  measure 
was  published  in  the  Forum,  from  which  monthly  we 
gather  the  following  interesting  items :  If  the  eight-hour 
system  were  adopted  in  America  there  would  be  a  uniform 
reduction  of  three  hours'  labor  a  day,  the  effect  of  which 
would  be  to  reduce  the  average  daily  production  over  one- 
fourth.  This  would  be  equal  to  increasing  the  present 
demand  over  one-fourth ;  that  is,  it  would  create  employ- 
ment for  3,500,000  toilers — more  laborers  than  we  have 
disengaged  in  the  United  States  and  in  England.  Then 
the  new  demand  for  labor  would  necessarily  increase  the 
number  of  consumers,  and  thereby  still  further  enlarge  the 
demand  for  commodities,  and  according  to  the  popular  doc- 
trine of  supply  and  demand,  the  increased  call  for  labor, 
by  reducing  competition  among  laborers,  must  tend  to 
increase  wages.  But  the  advantage  would  not  wholly  be 
with  the  artisan  class.  The  change  proposed  would  add  to 
"the  extent  of  the  market,"  and  as  Adam  Smith  taught, 
"the  larger  the  market  the  lower  the  price,"  the  manufac- 
turer would  maintain  his  profits  by  the  additional  demand 


190  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

for  his  goods ;  and  the  public  would  be  benefited,  for  this 
demand  being  increased  would  enable  the  producer  to  sell 
at  prices  even  more  moderate  than  at  present.  The  writer, 
of  whose  article  we  are  giving  a  summary,  adds  that  "the 
extent  of  the  market "  is  governed  by  the  normal  consump- 
tion of  wealth  in  any  community,  and  the  consumption  of 
wealth  is  determined  by  the  general  standard  of  living ; 
and,  therefore,  whatever  tends  to  increase  the  wants  and 
improve  the  habits  of  the  masses  must  necessarily  tend  to 
permanently  increase  the  consumption  and  production  of 
wealth,  and  thereby  conduce  to  industrial  and  social  ad- 
vancement. He  quotes  Prof.  Hearn  as  saying  : 

It  depends  upon  the  education,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term, 
of  each  individual,  and  upon  his  character  as  mainly  resulting  from 
that  education,  how  many  and  what  kind  of  objects,  and  with  what 
persistency  he  desires.  We  know  that  the  desires  of  educated  men 
are  more  varied  and  more  extended  than  those  of  persons  without 
education.  We  know  the  wages  of  educated  men  are  higher,  and 
consequently  the  means  of  gratifying  their  desires  greater  than  those 
of  the  uneducated.  *  *  *  Those  nations  and  those  classes  of  a 
nation  who  stand  highest  in  the  scale  of  civilization  are  those  whose 
wants,  as  experience  shows  us,  are  the  most  numerous. 

The  conclusion  from  this  statement  is  that  as  the  eight- 
hour  rule  would  create  new  environments  and  afford  oppor- 
tunities for  personal  improvements,  wants  would  multiply, 
the  standard  of  living  improve,  and  as  a  result  general 
prosperity  ensue.  This  conclusion  he  admirably  strength- 
ens by  an  appeal  to  those  countries  where  a  gradual  reduc- 
tion in  the  hours  of  labor  has  taken  place.  His  facts  and 
figures  warrant  the  inference  that  wherever  this  course  has 
been  pursued  beneficial  social  changes  have  followed  ;  and 
consequently,  he  recommends  that  in  the  United  States  an 
effort  should  be  made  to  diminish  the  time  now  devoted  to 
all  kinds  of  business  pursuits. 

How  this  can  best  be  brought  about  will  doubtless  lead 
to  differences  of  opinion.  For  ourselves  we  have  no  wish 


OVER-WROUGHT  WOMEN    AND  CHILDREN.  191 

to  invoke  the  aid  of  government,  and  we  believe  many 
others  besides  ourselves  would  much  prefer  to  see  the  lead- 
ing employers  take  the  initiative.  It  would  be  a  grand 
thing  for  them  to  effect  an  organization  among  themselves 
for  the  purpose  of  agreeing  that  eight  hours  henceforth 
shall  constitute  a  day's  work.  Were  they  to  take  this 
action  the  smaller  manufacturers  and  masters  would  be 
obliged  to  follow  suit ;  for  otherwise  they  would  find  no 
operatives  or  mechanics  willing  to  serve  them.  But  while 
we  cannot  recommend  the  direct  interference  of  the  State 
in  this  matter,  yet  we  are  fully  persuaded  that  in  those 
instances  where  women  and  children,  and  some  men  also, 
are  compelled  by  their  employers  to  labor  from  thirteen  to 
fifteen  hours  a  day,  it  ought,  both  in  the  name  of  justice 
and  of  the  Constitution,  to  interpose  that  these  helpless 
ones  may  be  rescued  from  the  unfeeling  creatures  who 
seem  to  think  that  nerves  and  muscles  are  as  unsusceptible 
to  pain  as  the  machinery  they  use  is  to  conscious  weari- 
ness. Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Constitution  de- 
clares that  Congress  shall  have  power  "  to  pay  the  debts 
and  provide  for  the  common  defense  and  general  welfare 
of  the  United  States."  Some  persons  may  question  the 
force  of  the  latter  cause;  but,  nevertheless,  if  the  legisla- 
tion on  behalf  of  sailors  may  be  taken  as  illustrative  of  its 
scope,  then  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  our  law-makers 
from  correcting  by  legal  enactment  the  abuse  of  which  we 
complain.  Such  a  statute  would  not  differ  in  principle 
from  what  was  done  for  the  welfare  of  our  mariners.  If 
advantage  is  continally  being  taken  of  the  necessities  of 
the  labor-classes  so  that  they  are  being  morally  and  phy- 
sically injured,  and  if  they  are  gradually  being  unfitted 
to  bear  the  responsibilities  of  citizens,  and  relief  comes  from 
no  other  quarter,  then  the  government,  on  the  authority  of 
the  Constitutional  provision  referred  to,  ought  to  interfere. 
It  has  no  right  to  permit  what  is,  or  will  be,  virtually  a 


192  STUDIES   IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

slave  caste  developed  by  overreaching  greed  beneath  the 
very  shadow  of  our  free  institutions.  There  is  no  sort  of 
Socialistic  taint  in  the  recommendation  we  make.  We  are 
not  advising  that  Congress  shall  determine  what  pro- 
fession any  one  shall  follow,  or  shall  undertake  to  manage 
the  business  of  the  country:  but  simply  that  it  shall  pro- 
ceed to  take  such  steps  as  shall  prevent  the  possibity  of  a 
repetition  in  this  land  of  the  Venetian  Republic's  decline 
and  fall.  An  Oligarchy  ruled  and  ruined  Venice.  It  will 
prove  disastrous  wherever  it  is  fostered.  Far  more  is  it 
to  be  dreaded  than  a  Monarchy,  and  of  all  Oligarchies  that 
of  money  is  the  most  soulless  and  despicable.  Our  govern- 
ment is  as  much  bound  to  stay  its  insidious  approaches  as 
it  is  to  guard  against  schemes  and  plots  of  any  ambitious 
demagogue  who  might  take  a  serious  fancy  to  establish 
here  a  throne  and  make  himself  a  king.  Short  work 
would  be  made  of  such  an  aspirant  for  regal  honors.  The 
authorities,  though  they  might  smile  at  his  pretensions, 
would  not  for  a  moment  allow  him  to  enforce  them.  So, 
observing  the  deteriorating  effect  of  excessive  hours  of 
labor,  and  discerning  how  they  favor  the  formation  of  a 
privileged  order,  which  on  account  of  its  immense  resources 
becomes  a  menace  to  the  well-being  of  these  States,  they 
ought  to  be  equally  prompt  to  avert  the  peril. 

In  future  discussions  much  will  be  found  bearing 
directly  on  this  subject;  and  for  the  present,  therefore, 
we  may  leave  it  and  the  entire  theme  on  which  we  have 
written  so  much.  We  would  in  closing  this  paper  urge 
upon  its  readers  to  ponder  the  recommendations  we  have 
made;  and  we  do  so  by  one  of  the  sublimest  of  all  truths  _ 
which  touch  the  race — namely,  man's  equality;  for,  while 
in  one  sense  he  is  unequal,  in  another  he  is  not.  AVe 
differ  from  each  other  in  ability  and  gifts,  in  strength  of 
mind  and  body,  but  not  in  nature.  In  all  essentials 
we  are  constituted  alike.  We  have  similar  feelings, 


EQUALITY   AT  THE   HEAET  OF  INEQUALITY.          193 

sympathies,  emotions,  hopes  and  fears.  We  all  stand  on 
an  equal  footing  of  privilege  before  God,  of  hope  before 
the  cross,  and  of  rewards  before  the  throne.  Yea,  we 
have  far  more  in  common  than  we  usually  think.  We  are 
born  alike,  we  suffer  alike,  we  sleep  alike,  we  die  and  lie 
in  the  ground  alike.  Referring  to  death  reminds  us  of 
a  remark  made  by  M.  Demogest,  the  historian,  when  com- 
menting on  an  old  cloister  chronicle.  He  says,  the  year 
of  grace  732,  in  which  Charles  Martel  succeeded  at  the 
battle  of,  Poictiers,  and  arrested  the  vast  invasion  of 
Islamism,  was  not  vouchsafed  a  place  on  certain  cloister 
records.  But  near  to  a  particular  date  we  have  the  state- 
ment ''Martin  est  mort,"  Martin  being  an  undistin- 
guished monk  of  the  Abbey  of  Corvey.  Some  time  after 
we  meet  another  insertion:  "  Charles,  maire  du palais,  est 
mort;  "  and  this  was  all  the  chroniclers  had  to  say  con- 
cerning the  "Iron  Hammer''  who  had  broken  to  pieces 
the  foes  of  Christianity.  Well  does  Demogest  moralize, 
' '  tons  les  homines  deviennent  egaux  devant  la  secheresse  la- 
conique  de  ces  premier  clironiqueurs. "  Laconic  enough,  and 
grim  enough,  God  knows!  Moreover,  as  death  is  common, 
so  is  it  also  remarkable  how  many  points  of  agreement 
there  are  between  lives  most  widely  separated  by  differences 
of  fortune.  Equality  lies  at  the  heart  of  inequality,  forc- 
ing us  to  think  of  our  brotherhood,  and  compelling  us  to 
note  the  stupidity  as  well  as  rascality  involved  in  all  over- 
reaching schemes.  Pathetically,  indeed,  has  James  Mont- 
gomery presented  this  thought,  and  his  verse  may  render 
it  far  more  vivid  than  anything  we  could  say: 

Once  in  the  flight  of  ages  past 

There  lived  a  man:  and  who  was  he? 
Mortal !  howe'er  thy  lot  be  cast, 

That  rnan  resembled  thee. 
***** 

He  suffered, — but  his  pangs  are  o'er; 
Enjoy 'd, — but  his  delights  are  fled; 
IS 


194  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

Had  friends, — his  friends  are  now  no  more: 
And  foes, — his  foes  are  dead. 

*  *  *  *  * 
He  saw  whatever  thou  hast  seen; 

Encounter'd  all  that  troubles  thee; 
He  was — whatever  thou  hast  been; 
He  is — what  thou  shalt  be. 

#  *  *  *  * 

The  annals  of  the  human  race, 
Their  ruins,  since  the  world  began, 

Of  him  afford  no  other  trace 
Than  this. — THERE  LIVED  A  MAN! 

And  yet  unless  our  times  are  reformed  it  will  hardly 
be  possible  to  record  of  millions,  "  There  lived  a  man." 
It  may  be  truthfully  said,  "there  starved  a  man,"  or  that 
many  sought  to  live,  but  were  not  allowed  to  do  so  by 
greed  and  insatiable  avarice.  But  be  this  as  it  may. 
However  natural  the  criticism,  there  is  a  substantial  truth 
in  Montgomery's  lines  which  cannot  be  evaded.  We  are 
more  alike,  feel  more  alike,  and  are  more  indissolubly 
allied  to  each  other  than  we  are  always  prepared  to 
acknowledge.  Now  by  this  unity,  by  this  fellowship,  by 
this  brotherhood,  we  are  appealed  to  in  the  sacred  Script- 
ures to  help  our  fellows  into  the  higher,  the  grandest,  the 
truest  life — to  so  lift  them  up  in  themselves  that  they  may 
be  lifted  up  above  the  evils  of  Society  and  be  made  free 
of  them  forever.  This  motive  should  influence  us.  It 
should  constrain  us,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  to  take  up  this 
work  and  devote  ourselves  to  its  glorious  completion. 
We  can  only  hope  that  it  may.  We  can  only  pray  that  it 
may  incline  us  to  hear  the  call  for  help  that  comes  to  us 
from  suffering  thousands,  and  may  inspire  us  with  an  un- 
swerving purpose  and  unflinching  courage  to  press  forward 
to  the  rescue. 


IV. 

THE   SUFFERINGS   OF   SOCIETY. 

I  gazed  on  power  till  I  grew  blind — 

On  power  ;  I  could  not  take  my  eyes  from  that — 

That  only,  I  thought,  should  be  preserved,  increased, 

At  any  risk,  displayed,  struck  out  at  once — 

The  sign,  and  note,  and  character  of  man. 

I  saw  no  use  in  the  past :  only  a  scene 

Of  degradation,  imbecility — 

The  record  of  disgraces  best  forgotten, 

A  sullen  page  in  human  chronicles 

Fit  to  erase.    *    *    * 

What  wonder  if  I  saw  no  way  to  shun  despair ! 

*    *    *    And  more  bitter, 

To  fear  a  deeper  curse,  an  inner  ruin — 

Plague  beneath  plague — the  last  turning  the  first 

To  light  beside  the  darkness.     Better  weep 

My  youth  and  its  brave  hopes,  all  dead  and  gone, 

In  tears  which  burn  ! 

******* 

Meanwhile,  if  I  stoop 
Into  a  dark,  tremendous  sea  of  cloud, 
It  is  but  for  a  time  :  I  press  God's  lamp 
Close  to  my  breast — its  splendor,  soon  or  late, 
Will  pierce  the  gloom  .  I  shall  emerge  one  day  I 
You  understand  me  ?    I  have  said  enough  ? 

— Robert  Browning. 

ALL  suffering  is  not  due  to  the  blunders  and  crimes  of 
Society.      Whatever  philosophers  may  say  to  the 
contrary,  it  is  sadly  evident  that,  apart  from  civilization," 
and  indeed  wherever  "the  vast,  unbroken  circle  "of  the 
sky  extends,  from  the  "pale-peaked  hill"  to  the  "last 

195 


196  STUDIES  Itf  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

verge  of  ocean,"  the  monotonous  wail  of  human  sorrow 
breaks  upon  the  ear. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  centers  of  commerce  it  is  painfully 
distinct,  and  that  Mrs.  Browning  has  reason  to  chant  her 
joyless  song : 

I  dwell  amid  the  city 
And  hear  the  flow  of  souls  in  act  and  speech, 

For  pomp  or  trade,  for  merrymake  or  folly : 
I  hear  the  confluence  and  sum  of  each, 

And  that  is  melancholy  ! 
Thy  voice  is  a  complaint,  O  crowned  city  ! 
The  blue  sky  covering  thee  like  God's  great  pity  ! 

But  even  in  a  state  of  nature  this  melancholy  sound  is 
not  unknown.  The  freest  and  wildest  savage,  whose  neck 
has  never  bent  to  the  yoke  of  toil,  has  his  cares  and  disap- 
pointments, as  truly  as  the  man  who  has  never  breathed 
the  fragrance  of  summer  fields  or  never  known  release 
from  the  muddy,  smoky  streets  of  sweltering  towns. 
While  pain  and  anguish  often  mar  the  royalty  of  gold- 
crowned  power,  and  moisten  with  tears  the  veil  of  radiant 
beauty,  and  mingle  bitter  drops  in  the  laborer's  cup  of  joy, 
they  also  cast  their  shadows  on  the  peasant  at  the  plow, 
and  on  the  Indian  in  the  wilderness.  So  widespread  are 
they,  so  stubborn  and  so  common,  that  they  have  furn- 
ished material  for  a  creed,  whose  first  article  is  "misery" 
and  the  last  "oblivion."  Arthur  Schopenhauer  is  the 
gloomy  parent,  at  least  in  modern  times,  of  this  bewilder- 
ing and  dreary  faith  ;  and  if  we  would  form  an  idea  of  the 
terrible  outcome  of  its  despairing  hope,  we  need  only  read 
some  lines  from  the  pen  of  Robert  Buchanan,  entitled  The 
New  Buddha,  a  name  which  he  applies  to  its  apostle  : 

As  ye  have  come,  depart ;  as  ye  have  risen 
•To  the  supremest  crest  of  suffering, 
Break,  overflow,  subside,  and  cease  forever. 
Man  hears.     He  feels,  though  all  the  rest  be  fals«. 


PESSIMISM.  197 

One  thing  is  certain — sleep :  more  precious  far 
Than  any  weary  walkings  in  the  sun. 
Shall  not  the  leafy  world  even  as  a  flower 
Be  wither'd  in  its  season  ;  or,  grown  cold, 
Even  like  a  snow-flake  melting  in  the  light, 
Fade  very  silently,  and  pass  away 

As  it  had  never  been?    Shall  man,  predoom'd,  •[  .     O 

Cling  to  his  sinking  straw  of  consciousness, 
Fight  with  the  choking  waters  in  his  throat,  ^~»  JC 

And  gasp  aloud,  "  More  life,  O  God,  more  life!  fa    Ofi 

More  pain,  O  God"?    *   *   *    Nay,  let  him  silently, 
•  Bowing  his  head,  like  some  spent  swimmer,  sink          J^ 
Without  a  sigh  into  the  blest  abyss  t—3  J" 

Dark  with  the  shipwreck  of  the  nations,  strewn  QJ  I1* 

With  bones  of  generations — lime  of  shells 


That  once  were  quick  and  lived.     Even  at  this  hour     {>•   t^ 

He  pauses,  doubting,  with  the  old  fond  cry, 

Dreaming  that  some  miraculous  hand  may  snatch        CL< 

His  spirit  from  the  waters!    Let  him  raise 

His  vision  upward,  and  with  one  last  look, 

Ere  all  is  o'er,  behold  ' '  Nirwana  "  writ 

Across  the  cruel  heavens  above  his  head, 

In  fiery  letters,  fading  characters 

Of  dying  planets,  faintly  flickering  suns, 

Foredoom'd  like  him  to  waste  away  and  fade, 

Extinguish'd  in  the  long  eternal  night. 

We  have  no  sympathy  with  this  forlorn  gospel  of 
desolation.  It  proceeds  on  the  untenable  assumption 
that  back  of  all  things  is  only  an  Infinite  Malevolence,  an 
impersonal  Will  governed  by  measureless  maliciousness, 
which  has  called  our  race  into  being  for  the  satisfaction 
of  its  cruelty,  having  arranged  just  enough  torture  to 
render  existence  a  burden,  and  yet  not  quite  enough  to 
drive  the  tortured  to  suicide.  God  forgive  the  morose 
philosopher  who  has  given  currency  to  so  coarse  a  slander. 
We  here  enter  our  earnest  protest  against  the  systematized 
and  logically  arranged  wretchedness.  It  is  sheer  nonsense, 
madness,  the  corpse  of  common  sense,  and  the  charnel 


198  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

house  of  love.  We  suspect  its  author  is  the  victim  of 
hallucination,  just  as  we  fear  that  Robert  Burns,  who 
has  given  us  " Holy  Willie's  Prayer,"  "The  Twa  Dogs," 
and  "  Rattlin'  Roarin'  Willie,"  had  reached  the  melancholy 
stage  of  inebriation  when  he  wrote,  "Man  was  made  to 
mourn."  He  was  made  for  no  such  thing,  and  we  ques- 
tion whether  Robert  himself  in  his  heart  held  to  any  such 
doleful  belief.  There  is  sorrow  enough  in  the  world  with- 
out adding  a  brutal  theory  of  despair.  We  know  that  the 
surface  of  the  earth  shows  angry  scars  and  jagged  wounds 
inflicted  by  tempestuous  fires;  but  we  also  know  that  it  is 
rich  with  golden  fields,  and  beautiful  with  flowers.  So  in 
this  life  of  ours.  There  are  abundant  curses  everywhere; 
but  there  are  blessings  as  well.  The  race  has  much  to 
endure;  but  it  has  also  much  to  enjoy.  Its  iniquities, 
whether  individual  or  communal,  entail  inevitable  penal- 
ties; but  then  its  virtues  yield  varied  and  enduring  rewards. 
There  are  broad  streams  of  sunshine  breaking  through  the 
clouds  which  surround  it,  and  silvery  stars  sparkling  in  the 
night-canopy  that  covers  it.  Oh !  let  not  our  tears  blind 
us  to  the  good,  because  we  grow  heart-sick  at  the  evil;  and 
let  us  not  blaspheme  the  love  of  our  Creator,  because  his 
law  decrees  that  we  shall  eat  the  bitter  fruit  of  our  shame- 
ful doings! 

Though,  as  we  have  said,  all  forms  of  sufferings  are  not 
the  product  of  Society,  nevertheless  its  spirit  and  structure 
have  much  to  do  in  determining  their  character.  That 
is,  while  all  sorrows  have  a  common  rootage  in  sin,  some 
may  be  classed  as  "human,"  as  those  which  are  inseparable 
from  man  as  man;  and  others  as  "social,"  as  those  which 
are  stimulated  by  the  organization,  the  temper  and  habits 
of  Society.  Is  is  of  the  latter  we  would  treat  in  this  paper, 
and  particularly  of  those  which  are  indigenous  to  our  own 
age. 

There  is  generally  a  class  of  persons  in   every  com- 


WORK   OR   STARVE.  199 

munity  who  stubbornly  refuse  to  submit  to  the  wholesome 
laws  which  have  been  enacted  for  its  safety  and  well- 
being.  They  are  not  victims,  they  are  villains;  they  have 
not  been  driven  into  evil  courses;  they  have  either  delib- 
erately chosen  them,  or  they  have  drifted  into  them  on 
the  broad,  glittering  stream  of  temptation.  As  long  as 
they  continue  in  this  way  there  is  no  possible  relief  from 
misery.  Sentimentalists  ought  seriously  to  consider  this. 
Benevolent  persons  who  will  not  raise  the  wages  of  their 
employes,  even  though  they  know  the  wolf  is  howling  at 
their  door,  are  frequently  very  charitable  in  their  judg- 
ment of  loafers  and  loungers  who  have  some  piteous  tale 
to  tell,  and  not  ungenerous  in  their  pecuniary  aid.  Her- 
bert Spencer  describes  the  worthless  creatures  we  have  in 
view,  and  has  developed  in  striking  phrase  the  thought  we 
are  trying  to  express. 

They  are  simply  good-for-nothings,  who  in  one  way  or  other  live 
on  the  good-for-somethings — vagrants  and  sots,  criminals  and  those 
on  the  way  to  crime,  youths  who  are  burdens  on  hard-worked 
parents,  men  who  appropriate  the  wages  of  their  wives,  fellows  who 
share  the  gains  of  prostitutes ;  and  then,  less  visible  and  less  numer- 
ous, there  is  a  corresponding  class  of  women. 

Is  it  natural  that  happiness  should  be  the  lot  of  such  ?  or  is  it 
natural  that  they  should  bring  unhappiness  on  themselves  and  those 
connected  with  them  ?  Is  it  not  manifest  that  there  must  exist  in  our 
midst  an  immense  amount  of  misery  which  is  a  normal  result  of  mis- 
conduct, and  ought  not  to  be  dissociated  from  it  ?  There  is  a  notion 
always  more  or  less  prevalent  and  just  now  vociferously  expressed, 
that  all  social  suffering  is  removable,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  some- 
body or  other  to  remove  it.  Both  these  beliefs  are  false.  To  sepa- 
rate pain  from  ill-doing  is  to  fight  against  the  constitution  of  things, 
and  will  be  followed  by  far  more  pain.  Saving  men  from  the 
natural  penalties  of  dissolute  living,  eventually  necessitates  the 
infliction  of  artificial  penalties  in  solitary  cells,  on  tread-wheels,  and 
by  the  lash.  I  suppose  a  dictum  on  which  the  current  creed  and  the 
creed  of  science  are  at  one,  may  be  considered  to  have  as  high  an 
authority  as  can  be  found.  Well,  the  command  ' '  if  any  would  not 
work  neither  should  he  eat,"  is  simply  a  Christian  enunciation  of  that 


200  STUDIES    IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

universal  law  of  Nature  under  which  life  has  reached  its  present 
height — the  law  that  a  creature  not  energetic  enough  to  maintain 
itself  must  die ;  the  sole  difference  being  that  the  law  which  in  the 
one  case  is  to  be  artificially  enforced,  is,  in  the  other  case,  a  natural 
necessity.  And  yet  this  particular  tenet  of  their  religion  which 
science  so  manifestly  justifies  is  the  one  which  Christians  seem  the 
least  inclined  to  accept.  The  current  assumption  is  that  there 
should  be  no  suffering,  and  that  society  is  to  blame  for  that  which 
exists. 

From  the  tenor  of  these  remarks  it  must  be  evident 
that  the  current  assumption  is  indeed  misleading.  There 
are  pangs  and  penalties  which  we  cannot  relieve.  They 
are  the  result  of  man's  evil-doing,  and  he  would  as  surely 
have  transgressed  in  a  desert  as  in  a  city.  We  cannot,  as 
Mr.  Spencer  declares,  separate  the  wrong-doing  from 
painful  consequences.  The  effort  to  do  so  is  itself  an 
attack  on  the  settled  order  of  the  universe.  It  would, 
moreover,  be  as  absurd  as  would  be  an  assault  on  the  law 
of  gravity.  Rest  satisfied  we  can  never  successfully  fight 
against  God  either  in  the  domain  of  physics  or  of  morals. 
As  you  walk  through  a  community  and  behold  squalor, 
filth  and  beggary,  do  not  hastily  ascribe  them  exclusively 
to  the  inequalities  and  selfishness  of  Society.  They  fre- 
quently proceed,  first  of  all,  from  the  violation  of  God's 
law,  and  only  in  a  secondary  degree  from  the  neglect  of 
man's.  Harlots,  drunkards,  idlers,  are  fearful  possibilities 
under  any  style  of  government,  and  the  Almighty  means 
that  no  government  shall  shield  them  from  his  punish- 
ments. It  follows,  then,  that  no  community,  however 
ideally  formed  and  righteously  administered,  can  ever  be 
entirely  free  from  spectacles  of  woe  as  long  as  one  trans- 
gressor remains  a  citizen.  That  one  wretch  will  inevitably 
find  for  himself  a  lash,  and  a  crown  of  thorns  for  wife  and 
children  ;  and  God's  retributions  will  certainly  overtake 
him,  however  philanthropic  and  paternal  the  State  may 
be.  Discrimination  is  important.  Wide-sweeping  denun- 


ENCOURAGING   CRIMINALS.  201 

ciations  are  out  of  place.  Society  is  doubtless  to  blame 
for  much  of  the  suffering  that  rouses  our  sympathies,  but 
not  for  all.  The  responsibility  is  largely  personal  and 
individual ;  and  when  red-nosed,  watery-eyed,  pimple- 
cheeked  loungers  murmur  against  the  civic  order,  and 
with  hiccoughs  manifold,  and  with  much  maudlin  gravity, 
recommend  national  reforms,  they  ought  at  once  to  be 
emphatically  told  that  no  schemes  can  bring  relief  as  long 
as  they,  and  such  as  they,  do  not  reform  themselves,  or 
remove  their  carcasses  to  the  obscurity  of  the  cemetery. 

We  fear,  however,  that  the  error  into  which  many  of 
our  good  people  have  fallen  has  prevented  the  worthless 
classes  from  occasionally  edifying  the  country  with  that 
pleasing  spectacle,  called  in  the  German  tongue  "  Haru- 
gari,"  which  has  done  so  much  for  Japan.  It  is  clear 
that  we  do  not  sufficiently  encourage  our  riffraff  to  acts  of 
heroic  self-immolation  ;  and  some  among  us  so  flatter 
them,  especially  at  election  times,  that  they  come  to  think 
of  themselves  as  public  benefactors .  Sentimental  philan- 
thropists assure  us  that  they  are  our  brothers,  and  ought 
to  be  led  back  to  a  nobler  life.  We,  too,  believe  they 
should  be  reclaimed;  but  so  long  as  they  are  made  promi- 
nent in  politics,  and  so  long  as  they  are  encouraged  to 
esteem  themselves  our  real  rulers,  we  are  deceiving  them 
as  to  their  worth,  and  burdening  ourselves  with  lazy  ras- 
cals, though  not  lazy  in  rascality.  We  rather  think  that 
Carlyle  is  not  far  from  the  mark  when  he  thus  writes  of 
those  whom  he  calls  a  "  beautiful  black  peasantry,"  with 
the  "  devil  at  their  elbow.'* 

Brotherhood  ?  *  *  *  Does  the  Christian  or  any  religion 
prescribe  love  of  scoundrels  then  ?  I  hope  it  prescribes  a  healthy 
hatred  of  scoundrels — otherwise  what  am  I,  in  heaven's  name,  to 
make  of  it  ?  Me,  for  one,  it  will  not  serve  as  a  religion  on  those 
strange  terms.  Just  hatred  of  scoundrels,  I  say;  fixed,  irreconcili- 
ble,  inexorable  enmity  to  the  enemies  of  God  ;  this,  and  not  love 
for  them,  and  incessant  whitewashing,  and  dressing  and  cockering 


202  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

of  them,  must,  if  you  look  into  it,  be  the  backbone  of  any  human 
religion  whatsoever.  Christian  religion  !  In  what  words  can  I  ad- 
dress you,  ye  unfortunates,  sunk  in  the  slushy  ooze  till  the  worship 
of  mud-serpents,  and  unutterable  pythons  and  poisonous  slimy  mon- 
strosities seems  to  you  the  worship  of  God  ?  This  is  the  rotten  car- 
cass of  Christianity ;  this  malodorous  phosphorescence  of  post  mortem 
sentimentality. 

This  language  is  harsh,  after  the  manner  of  the  man, 
but  the  thought  behind  is  neither  unwise  nor  unjust.  We 
have  of  late  set  up  reformed  drunkards  and  jail-birds  to 
exhort  in  the  name  of  Christ  a  better  class  than  themselves. 
They  have  been  made  so  much  of  that  not  a  few  of  them 
talk  as  though  there  was  something  commendable  in  their 
old  pursuits,  and  as  though  they  themselves  were  objects  to 
be  admired.  And  as  to  Carlyle,  so  it  has  seemed  to  us,  that 
some  members  of  the  church  have  for  several  years  past  been 
worshiping  "  pythons  and  poisonous  slimy  monstrosities. " 
If  such  persons  give  evidence  of  conversion  let  them  cor- 
dially be  received  by  the  church  ;  but  for  the  sake  of  "  the 
sluggard-scoundrelism "  yet  in  the  world,  let  them  not  be 
thrust  forward  into  conspicuous  places,  as  though  idleness, 
wife-beating  and  drunkenness  did  not  really  impair  one's 
hope  of  glory.  "We  are  opposed  to  pampering.  It  is  our 
belief  if  intemperance  were  dealt  with  as  a  crime,  and 
wife-beating  as  a  piece  of  deviltry  to  be  paid  in  the  same 
coin,  only  with  more  of  it,  we  should  be  amply  rewarded 
by  a  notable  diminution  of  misery.  We  are  convinced 
that  idlers  should  be  compelled  to  work.  They  owe 
something  to  the  State,  and  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to 
burden  it  with  an  unproductive  existence.  Citizens  who 
furnish  by  their  laziness  the  best  of  evidences  that  they 
will  not  labor  to  provide  for  themselves,  ought  to  be  treated 
as  parasites,  as  creatures  who  are  willing  to  take  but  not 
ready  to  give,  and  so  forfeit  their  liberty  for  a  season  in 
the  interest  of  industry.  A  little  wholesome  discipline  of 
this  nature  would  bring  thousands  to  their  senses.  And 


CUESES   OF   CIVILIZATION.  203 

if  it  were  followed  for  a  time  by  decided  failure  on  the  part 
of  respectable  people  to  acknowledge  them  anywhere ;  and 
if  the  same  people  would  courteously  respond  to  the  nod 
or  the  bow  of  the  toil-stained  mechanic  on  the  street,  as 
though  to  say  we  pay  a  tribute  to  self-reliant  labor,  the 
discipline  would  be  more  efficacious,  and  soon  it  would  not 
be  required  at  all.  Be  it  understood  that  in  this  recom- 
mendation we  are  not  countenancing  Communism  or  Pater- 
nalism; w^e  are  simply  laying  down  the  principle  that  the 
citizen  has  received  much  from  the  State  and  owes  it  some 
compensation  in  the  way  of  a  good  character  and  industri- 
ous habits;  and  that  if  he  fails  in  one  or  both,  he  should 
be  made  to  pay  what  he  owes,  and  when  he  recognizes  the 
obligation  practically,  he  should  be  allowed  to  choose  his 
own  calling  and  be  left  free  to  follow  it. 

While  in  many  instances  suffering  is  self-caused,  in 
others  it  is  due  to  the  exacting  pursuits  and  avocations 
of  modern  civilization.  From  what  sources  do  all  the 
busy  crowds  that  jostle  us  on  the  streets  derive  their 
support?  They  all  live,  but  how?  As  we  see  in  the  shops 
the  delicate  fabrics,  the  elegant  jewelry,  the  gorgeous  fur- 
niture, we  naturally  think  of  the  thousands  of  artisans 
employed  in  their  production,  and  of  the  other  thousands 
we  may  say  millions,  who  make  the  brick  and  rear  the 
houses  where  they  are  stored,  and  who  procure  the  raw 
material  from  which  they  are  manufactured.  A  whole 
world  of  activity  sweeps  before  us,  and  we  are  pleased  with 
the  results  of  human  toil,  and  rejoice  that  men  and  women 
are  occupied  so  usefully  and  ingeniously.  But  there  is 
another  side  to  the  picture.  Out  of  these  and  kindred 
creations  there  not  only  comes  wealth  and  prosperity;  but 
likewise  in  connection  with  them  we  have  physical  infirmi- 
ties, mental  depressions,  and  often  moral  deterioration. 
Enter  a  cotton  factory  or  a  flax  mill  and  you  will  observe 
that  the  children  are  pale  and  undergrown,  that  the  men 


204  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

are  attenuated  and  weak,  that  the  women  are  emaciated 
and  stunted;  and  you  will  learn  that,  owing  to  the  confine- 
ment, the  artificial  heat,  the  monotony  of  the  work,  and 
the  dust  from  the  material  used,  only  one  out  of  every  five 
of  the  boys  and  girls  will  reach  the  age  of  twenty;  and 
that  the  average  life-rate  among  the  adults  is  38.92  years 
for  men,  and  27.98  for  women.  Farmers  average  65.19; 
and  from  this  high  figure  one  can  judge  how  exacting  and 
exhausting  the  entire  factory  system  must  be.  .  It  breeds 
consumption,  induces  premature  enfeeblement  of  the  vital 
organs,  and  so  brings  with  it  untold  misery  of  mind  and 
body.  But  in  these  respects  it  is  not  alone.  While  it  may 
be  foremost  as  a  destroyer  it  is  not  solitary.  Let  the  trades 
pass  in  review  and  you  will  behold  an  army  of  invalids, 
groaning,  wailing,  staggering  on  its  forced  march  to  the 
grave.  There  are  the  hatters,  asthmatic  and  bilious;  the 
tailors,  narrow-chested  and  debilitated;  the  brass-founders, 
with  their  difficulty  of  breathing,  and  their  cramps  and 
their  nausea;  the  masons,  with  their  diseases  arising  from 
the  stone-dust  they  inhale;  the  makers  of  colored  papers 
and  artificial  flowers,  with  their  tumors,  ulcers  and  poison- 
ings from  the  arsenic  they  employ;  the  workers  in  phos- 
phorus, with  their  sores  and  the  eating  away  of  their  flesh; 
and  with  these,  the  smelters,  potters,  painters,  type-foun- 
ders, plumbers,  who  have  to  handle  lead,  and  who  in  doing 
so  are  smitten  in  their  nerves  and  often  paralyzed  in  brain. 
And  these  are  only  part  of  the  melancholy  procession.  We 
have  said  nothing  of  the  sickly  host  of  women  who  stitch, 
stitch,  stitch,  or  drive  the  sewing-machine  and  slowly 
waste  away  to  the  sound  of  its  unmusical  click;  nor  have 
we  spoken  of  other  callings,  such  as  are  followed  in  the 
mines,  on  the  railroad  and-  on  the  sea,  and  which  bring 
their  own  infirmities,  perils  and  losses.  Enough,  however, 
has  been  said  to  show  that  the  pursuits  which  have  so 
much  to  do  with  the  development  of  material  civilization 


BUSINESS   EXACTIONS.  205 

have   proven   infinitely  more  fatal  than   battle  or  ship- 
wreck. 

But  this  is  not  all.  In  other  directions  we  find 
scores  of  men  prematurely  old,  disordered  and  undone. 
Commercial  life  in  our  times  is  almost  as  trying  as 
the  mechanical.  The  workman  who  plods  along  early  in 
the  morning  with  his  noontide  meal  may  envy  the  mer- 
chant who  has  not  yet  risen  from  his  bed;  but  if  he  only 
knew  the  care  and  anxiety  that  awaits  him  on  his  wak- 
ing, he  would  hesitate  to  exchange  places  with  him.  An 
immense  amount  of  pity  is  lavished  on  the  laboring 
classes — and  rightly,  too — but  there  is  not  enough  be- 
stowed on  the  mercantile  classes,  on  those  whose  thinking 
and  financiering  keep  the  many  Avheels  of  civilization  in 
motion.  They  have  burdens  to  bear,  disappointments  to 
meet  and  failures  to  endure,  which  may  depress  their 
spirits,  derange  their  nerves,  prostrate  their  strength  and 
sometimes  unhinge  their  reason.  Business  excitement 
so  high  that  mental  and  physical  exhaustion  follow;  and 
then  to  recover  the  tone  of  the  system,  stimulants  are 
frequently  resorted  to,  which,  in  the  long  run,  end  in  ter- 
rible disaster.  The  gloom  engendered  in  the  counting- 
room  is  carried  to  the  home,  and  domestic  bliss  is  un- 
happily beclouded.  Keligion  is  neglected;  for  the  un- 
natural strain  endured  during  the  week  unfits  for  the 
quiet  of  the  Sabbath,  and  leaves  neither  vigor  nor  taste  for 
church  and  its  soul-refreshing  services.  The  moral  life 
consequently  declines,  and  many  families  become  shallow, 
frivolous  and  weak,  victims  who  are  being  prepared  for 
untold  agonies  in  the  future.  So  trying  and  madden- 
ing are  these  occupations  that  existence  itself  grows  weari- 
some. Some  end  it  violently;  and  others,  heartbroken, 
thankfully  drop  into  the  seclusion  of  the  grave.  In 
Europe  we  heard  a  clergyman  say  that  he  had  read  on  the 
tombstone  of  a  diligent  merchant:  "  He  never  took  anv 


206  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

vacation  till  he  came  here;'1  and,  alas!  it  is  true,  so  ex- 
acting are  business  demands,  that  many  who  are  engaged 
in  its  service  find  it  next  to  impossible  to  obtain  a  respite, 
and  have  only  a  hope  of  vacation  in  the  other  world,  as  it 
is  very  certain  they  will  never  have  any  in  this. 

It  must  be  evident  to  the  most  unreflecting  that  if 
these  causes  are  left  to  operate  throughout  the  world  the 
race  must  be  seriously,  if  not  irremediably,  injured.  In 
no  way  can  the  result  be  avoided  except  through  the 
action  of  radical  reform.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time 
now.  There  are  enough  forces  actively  engaged  to  effect 
our  destruction;  and  yet  the  destruction  can  be  averted  if 
we  address  ourselves  to  the  work  promptly  and  vigorously. 
What  ought  we  to  do?  We  will  answer  this  question  by 
asking  another.  A  government  was  founded  in  this  land 
some  hundred  years  ago;  but  for  what  purpose?  Did  our 
fathers  establish  our  institutions  that  money  might  be 
coined  out  of  the  fields,  or  that  humanity  might  through 
liberty  be  trained  and  developed?  Was  the  experiment 
designed  to  show  how  much  cash  we  could  collect  in  our 
coffers,  or  was  it  meant  to  show  how  much  of  true  manhood 
could  be  concentrated  in  our  citizens?  Were  we  in  a  public 
meeting  we  would  vote  for  the  manhood  side  of  this  issue, 
and  on  a  platform  we  would  speak  in  its  favor;  but  in  our 
practical  business  affairs  we  usually  act  contrary  to  both 
vote  and  speech.  We  extol  sentiment  before  a  popular 
audience,  and  straightway  ignore  it  in  private.  Material 
things  possess  a  greater  charm  for  us  than  for  those  who 
founded  the  Republic.  They  sought  ways  and  means  by 
which  all  classes  might  be  guarded  and  encouraged; 
but  we  seem  to  be  unwilling  that  our  burdened  ones 
should  even  have  the  opportunity  of  caring  for  themselves. 
Surely  we  ought  to  return  to  the  spirit  of  our  sires  and 
seek  to  carry  out  the  great  end  they  contemplated.  Let 
us  see  how  this  thought  is  related  to  the  subject  in  hand. 


DUTY   OF  THE   STATE.  207 

Undoubtedly  perils  of  various  kinds  cannot  be  alto- 
gether avoided  in  maintaining  and  advancing  civilization; 
but  if  we  are  influenced  by  the  example  of  our  revolu- 
tionary heroes,  we  will  seek  to  reduce  them  to  the  mini- 
mum. This  is  our  duty.  We  see  that  thousands  of 
people  are  being  sacrificed  annually,  and  we  ought  either 
to  take  adequate  measures  for  their  security  or  we  should 
dispense  with  articles  for  which  the  price  of  blood  has  to 
be  paid.  Oh,  believe  us,  they  are  not  worth  the  awful 
cost.  The  Leaders  of  Society  ought  to  lay  this  solemn 
responsibility  to  heart.  But  if  they  are  dilatory,  there 
are  sufficient  grounds  for  the  State  to  interpose.  To 
crowd  an  unseaworthy  vessel  with  passengers  and  send  it 
across  the  sea  is  a  criminal  offense;  and  we  do  not  see 
why  filling  badly  ventilated  rooms,  destitute  of  fire-escapes, 
with  tailors,  sewing  women,  or  operatives,  should  not 
be  equally  criminal;  or  why  carelessness  in  exposing  them 
to  the  injurious  effects  of  materials  used  in  their  calling 
should  not  be  severely  punished.  The  government  should 
exercise  a  more  complete  oversight  of  manufactories 
than  it  does:  and  should  exact  the  fulfillment  of  such 
conditions  as  are  necessary  to  the  comfort  and  safety 
of  wage-workers.  In  doing  this  it  would  do  no  more  than 
it  does  when  it  inspects  the  boilers  of  vessels  going  to 
ply  on  the  sea  or  lakes;  and  no  more  than  it  does  when  it 
tries  to  shield  the  public  against  the  impositions  of  dis- 
tillers and  from  the  inroads  of  cholera.  It  could  in  this 
way  diminish  disease,  prolong  life  and  promote  the  happi- 
ness of  a  large  portion  of  our  population. 

Science  also  should  exert  itself  in  this  cause,  should  point 
out  the  wholesale  murder  involved  in  our  frantic  endeavors 
to  be  rich,  and  should  interest  itself  in  providing  means  to 
avert  the  mischievous  action  of  dusts  and  poisons  which 
render  hazardous  various  vocations.  Let  a  body  of  scien- 
tists in  England  and  America  come  together  and  speak 


208  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

authoritatively  on  these  points,  and  they  would  be  better 
engaged  than  in  defending  Darwinism  and  the  "Descent 
of  Man;"  and  would  perform  a  service  which  future  gen- 
erations would  remember  as  tending  to  accelerate  his 
"ascent."  It  is  said  that  not  a  few  learned  books  touch 
on  these  subjects?  Granted:  but  what  \s  needed  is  not  a 
mere  allusion,  or  even  a  treatise  cast  on  the  world  to  find 
for  itself  readers.  We  rather  need,  yea,  necessity  demands, 
that  Science  shall  openly  espouse  the  cause  of  humanity, 
and  through  its  representatives  speak  boldly  and  clearly 
from  its  unbiased  stand  point  on  the  duties  of  the  State 
and  of  employers.  It  is  probably  indispensable  to  the 
sympathic  advocacy  of  measures  of  relief  that  the  heart 
should  be  sensibly  touched  by  the  woes  of  others;  and 
surely  it  is  not  too  much  to  assume  that  among  all  the 
brill  ant  men  who  give  themselves  to  physical  researches 
there  are  many  who  have  been  thus  affected,  and  who  are 
ready  to  do  something  practical.  Let  them  act;  and  let 
them  also  join  forces  with  the  Church,  and  impress  upon 
this  feverish,  restless  and  grasping  age  the  importance  of 
moderation.  A  sentiment  needs  to  be  created  in  favor  of 
self-restraint.  Were  desires  duly  curbed  the  world  would  be 
much  better  off.  If  merchants  were  not  in  a  hurry  to  amass 
wealth  they  would  escape  much  wear  and  tear,  and  they 
would  live  longer,  and  their  clerks  would  live  longer  as 
well.  Could  Science  and  Religion  hand  in  hand  awaken 
Society  to  the  appreciation  of  the  value  of  self-abnegation, 
much  of  the  sorrow  that  now  afflicts  us  would  cease.  Then 
would  fewer 'Board  of  Trade  operators  be  smitten  with 
uncontrollable  nervousness;  fewer  stock-brokers  would  be 
tempted  to  speculate,  and  failing  in  their  calculations  fail 
also  in  their  health;  and  fewer  would  grow  away  from  the 
affection  of  their  families  and  die  of  a  broken  heart.  When 
Mr.  Spencer  visited  our  shores  and  saw  us  he  read  the  story 
of  our  immoderation  in  our  faces,  and  recommended 


UNDERPAID    BIBLE   WOMEN.  209 

judicious  recreation.  Mr.  Lowell  remarks  that  our  sires  grew 
melancholy  and  atrabilious  from  long  fasting  and  from  over 
much  prayer.  This,  however,  is  .not  the  cause  of  our  per- 
manent seriousness  and  of  our  careworn  appearance.  We 
are  lean,  yellow  and  shrunken  because  our  craving  for 
secular  gain  is  insatiable.  Let  us  by  all  means  seek  amuse- 
ment ;  but  in  addition  let  us  learn  that  it  is  neither  wise 
nor  fair  to  develop  all  the  resources  of  our  country  in  a 
single  generation,  leaving  nothing  for  posterity  to  do.  If 
we  can  only  be  made  to  feel  this,  then  will  we  pause,  and 
breathing  deeply  and  calmly  will  say  to  each  other,  "go 
slow,"  and  "let  us  sit  down  beneath  the  trees  and  rest 
awhile." 

From  what  we  have  just  written  it  seems  probable  that 
indifference  and  criminal  carelessness  are  directly  respon- 
sible for  many  of  the  sufferings  endured  by  Society.  This 
is  indeed  the  case,  but  as  yet  we  have  not  attempted  to 
give  an  adequate  conception  of  their  prevalence.  We 
desire  now  to  remedy  this  defect ;  and  as  a  fitting  intro- 
duction, we  copy  this  significant  paragraph  from  Truth, 
London,  July  20,  1885  : 

"  The  nearer  the  Church  the  farther  from  grace,"  says  the  adage, 
and  it  would  almost  seem  as  if  the  people  who  are  nearest  the  Biblo 
are  farthest  from  justice.  If  it  be  true  that  the  women  who  are 
engaged  in  the  production  of  cheap  Bibles  are  almost  the  worst  paid 
in  London,  the  fact  is  a  very  disgraceful  one.  It  is,  no  doubt,  a  very 
good  thing  to  send  cheap  Bibles  to  the  heathen  :  but  if  the  people  who 
are  engaged  in  folding  and  binding  them  are  half-starved  in  order  to 
do  it,  we  are  likely  to  make  more  heathens  at  home  than  we  convert 
abroad.  Missionary  enthusiasts  should  remember  that  charity,  and 
also  justice,  should  begin  at  home,  and  that  there  is  not  much  religion 
where  these  are  absent. 

We  are  of  those  who  agree  with  the  editor.  We  can- 
not believe  that  Bibles  stained  with  injustice  and  sent 
abroad  at  the  cost  of  the  indigent,  and  in  disregard  of 
their  welfare,  whose  cause  it  continually  advocates,  will  be 


210  STUDIES   IN  SOCIAL   LIFE. 

blessed  of  God.  Good  books  are  well,  but  good  characters 
are  better;  and  the  course  of  the  publishing  house  evi- 
dently tends  to  produce  more  of  the  former  and  less  of  the 
latter  than  is  wholesome.  We  cannot  suspect  the  heads  of 
this  house  of  a  deliberate  intent  to  grind  the  face  of  the 
poor.  Their  solemn  and  religious  avocation  surely  pre- 
cludes such  baseness.  We  must,  therefore,  conclude  that 
the  cause  of  their  singular,  unchristian  conduct  must  be 
an  unhappy  oversight.  Perhaps  they  read  about  the  mar- 
kets, how  every  one  gets  everything  as  cheap  as  possible, 
and  they  became  ambitious  that  as  large  a  margin  of  profit 
should  be" shown  in  their  business  as  in  that  of  others, 
they  may  have  formed  their  idea  of  duty  from  accounts  of 
wages  paid  in  other  industries,  and  may  have  decided  on 
their  course  toward  the  women  they  employ  by  reports, 
say,  of  those  shirt-making  girls  whose  protest  against  the 
reduction  of  their  scanty  income  was  blandly  but  imperi- 
ously rejected.  The  account  of  the  protest,  which  ac- 
companied what  was  really  a  strike,  we  find  in  New  York 
Herald,  April  24,  1885,  and  from  it  the  unsophisticated 
may  gain  an  idea  of  the  difference  between  the  rewards  of 
capital  and  labor.  The  story  is  in  the  form  of  an  inter- 
view, and  here  is  the  report : 

"This  is  the  third  reduction  since  last  January.  If  we  accepted 
it  we  could  not  make  on  an  average  more  than  $3  a  week,  and  we 
thought  it  was  time  to  strike.  I  have  now  to  make  twenty-four 
sleeves,  stitched  down  on  both  sides,  for  nine  and  a  half  cents.  I 
have  been  four  years  an  operator.  I  know  my  business,  and  the 
most  I  can  make  in  the  winter  time,  when  we  are  all  busy,  will  not 
average  $6  per  week.  The  firm  is  a  very  rich  firm,  and  I  don't  blame 
them  so  much  as  the  forewoman.  She  thinks  it  is  to  her  interest  to 
keep  us  down  in  price,  and  she  told  Mr.  Wallach  that  we  would 
work  for  these  reduced  rates.  She  is  mistaken,  and  now  the  tirm  is 
advertising  for  girls  to  work  at  the  rates  we  have  refused.  We  want 
the  girls  who  apply  to  know  what  it  is  they  are  going  to  do,  and  we 
think  when  they  know  what  the  facts  are  they  will  not  go  and  do  this 
work  at  these  prices." 


SHIRTMAKERS   IN   NEW   YORK.  211 

"  What  does  the  labor  on  a  dozen  of  shirts  amount  to  ?"  asked  the 
reporter. 

"  On  the  fine  class  of  shirts  made  by  this  firm  about  $1.25." 
"  And  the  material,  what  would  that  cost?" 
"  Not  more  than  fifty  cents  a  shirt  at  the  outside." 
"Then  the  cost  of  labor  and  material  is  about  $7.50  per  dozen. 
What  are  these  shirts  sold  at?  " 

'•These  shirts  I  have  been  describing  are  sold  at  about  $18  to 
$18.50  per  dozen,  retail.  I  don't  know  what  the  firm  gets  for  them 
at  wholesale  prices,  but  I  should  think  from  $15  to  $16.  We  think 
at  these  rates  of  profit  they  could  afford  to  pay  us  better  prices," 

We  think  so,  too.  Now  in  this  case  we  cannot  for  a 
moment  suppose  that  there  was  any  mistake  made  by  the 
manufacturers  of  shirts.  Undoubtedly  they  calculated 
nicely  as  to  their  profits,  and  screwed  every  one  in  their 
service  down  to  the  lowest  point.  They  evidently  knew 
what  they  were  about,  just  as  many  of  our  rolling-mill 
companies  do  when  they  lower  the  wages  of  workmen — 
shame  on  them! — to  pay  a  higher  dividend,  or  to  continue 
an  existing  one,  to  the  stockholders.  Such  meanness  sur- 
passes the  power  of  pen  to  describe.  When  it  is  imitated 
by  Bible  societies  it  will  be  characterized  in  a  similar 
way,  and  ought  to  be;  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  it 
really  proceeded  from  ignorance  of  what  it  costs  the  girls 
to  live,  and  from  a  fatal  misunderstanding  of  the  iniquity 
and  grasping  avarice  involved  in  the  shirtmaking  im- 
broglio. It  is  barely  possible  that  we  have  done  this  Bible 
multiplying  agency  an  injustice  in  supposing  it  to  be  as 
innocent  of  the  ways  of  the  world  as  we  have  assumed. 
If  such  should  be  the  case,  we  pray  in  a  spirit  which 
we  fear  approaches  an  anathema,  that  the  Lord  will 
deal  with  it:  and  will  have  it  so  graciously  arranged  that  it 
shall  not  make  two  heathen  at  home  for  every  one  saved 
in  foreign  lands.  But  whatever  may  be  true  of  this  par- 
ticular agency,  there  are  many  people  who  have  no  idea 
how  millions  get  a  living.  They  are  not  hard-hearted, 


212  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

they  do  not  mean  to  be  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  others, 
and  yet  they  are  oblivious  to  the  appalling  scenes  that  are 
enacted  near  them.  Crowds  surge  by  them  on  the  streets 
and  they  feel  no  more  identity  with  them  then  they  do  with 
the  stones  beneath  their  feet.  They  never  ask  themselves 
whether  these  multitudes  can  be  helped,  or  whether  they 
have  sorrows,  or  whether  they  are  discouraged  and  starving. 
Plaintively  has  the  poet  sung  on  this  phase  of  selfishness: 

Ah !  sad  enough  is  the  picture,  and  little  we  dream  or  know 

Of  the  terrible  storms  encountered,  the  anguish  and  sore  distress 
Of  many  we  daily  meet  in  our  journeying  to  and  fro, 

Whom  we  never  have  thought  to  pity,  and  never  have  cared  to 

bless 
And  driven  before  the  wind  of  a  merciless,  cruel  fate, 

Like  vessels  shorn  of  their  sails,  and  urged  to  a  rocky  shore, 
Bereft  of  their  early  hopes,  and  swept  from  their  high  estate, 

Pitiful  wrecks!  they're  stranded  close  to  the  pawnshop  door. 

Yes,  and  alas!  many  are  driven  to  another  door,  far 
more  humiliating  than  that  of  the  pawnshop,  and  over 
which  might  well  be  written,  "whoso  enters  here  leaves 
hope  behind."  And  many  who  are  instrumental  in  hast- 
ening them  downward  to  such  a  destiny  have  never  sus- 
pected themselves  of  being  charged  with  any  responsibility 
in  the  matter.  But,  fine  lady,  when  you  beat  down  the 
poor  sewing  girl  in  her  price,  found  such  fault  with  the 
milliner's  work  that  she  was  obliged  to  give  you  nearly  all 
of  it  for  nothing,  and  when  you  tortured  your  housemaids 
with  your  dyspepsia  and  your  moody  tempers,  and  inti- 
mated to  every  woman  in  distress  Avho  sought  your  alms 
that  she  was  no  better  than  she  should  be,  you  were  surely, 
though  perhaps  undesignedly,  adding  to  the  load  these 
unfortunate  ones  had  to  carry,  and  were  not  only  robbing 
them  of  hope,  but  of  virtue  as  well.  How  will  you  answer 
your  Creator  when  He  inquires  of  you  regarding  your 
poor  sister?  Will  you  reply,  "Why,  really,  I  was  not 


A    CHRISTIAN    EMPLOYER.  213 

acquainted  with  her,  and  she  never  moved  in  our  circle "? 
Ah !  it  is  more  than  probable  when  such  a  question  is  asked 
you  will  be  dumb  ;  for  then,  if  not  before,  you  will  have  a 
consciousness  that  your  duty  to  your  sister  demanded 
more  than  a  feeling  that  you  never  voluntarily  and 
maliciously  harmed  her — namely,  that  you  should  have 
taken  account  of  her  needs,  and  earnestly  have  sought  to 
advance  her  interests,  In  these  few  words  we  have  clearly 
indicated  our  obligation,  which  if  discharged,  would 
soften  many  a  rugged  way,  and  bind  up  many  bleeding 
feet.  Were  we  only  considerate,  charity  would  rarely  be 
required,  and  idlers  would  soon  be  ashamed  to  show  them- 
selves. Active  concern  for  the  welfare  of  those  who  are 
dependent  would  cost  but  little  money,  and  would  diminish 
many  a  care,  and  would  make  the  poor  happier  and  more 
contented.  Fitz  John  Porter,  in  North  American  Review 
for  October,  1885,  describes  such  an  instance  of  solicitude 
for  the  working  classes  as  we  have  in  mind,  and  which,  in 
spirit  at  least,  can  be  copied  by  all  who  desire  to  be  their 
friendly  helpers: 

There  is  a  factory  in  one  of  the  large  manufacturing  towns  of 
the  country  where  one  of  the  employers,  imbued  with  true  Christian 
philanthropy,  brings  himself  down  to  a  level  with  his  hundreds  of 
employes.  He  mingles  with  their  families  ;  finds  out  the  social  state 
and  wants  of  all ;  gives  a  word  of  advice  to  one  ;  imparts  counsel  to 
another  ;  sympathizes  with  the  mourner  ;  puts  his  strong  arm  around 
the  weak  ;  and  employs  all  of  his  ability  to  raise  his  workingmen  in 
the  scale  of  human  existence.  He  provides  a  reading  room  for  them, 
furnishes  them  with  reading  matter,  and  gives  them  lectures.  Let 
this  example  be  emulated  by  every  employer  in  the  land,  and  riots 
would  be  impossible. 

Yes,  and  more  than  riot  would  be  suppressed  ;  man}'  a 
heart-sigh  would  be  hushed,  many  a  tear  would  be  dried, 
and  many  a  wounded  soul  would  once  more  believingly 
pray  to  God  were  this  man's  example  generally  followed. 

While  referring  to  oversights  and  neglects,  and  what 


214  STUDIES   IN   SOICAL    LIFE. 

comes  of  them,  permit  us  to  call  attention  to  other  cases 
equally  grave.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  many  of 
our  citizens  have  read  the  tales  of  horror  we  are  constrained 
to  republish  ;  and  perhaps,  too,  more  of  a  similar  character, 
and  yet  the  impressions  made  by  them  may  have  been  tran- 
sient on  account  of  the  failure  to  feel  any  personal  re- 
sponsibility for  the  enormities  enacted.  Of  course  it  is 
familiar  to  all  of  you  that  county,  city  of  State  govern- 
ments provide  Poorhouses  and  Asylums  of  various  kinds 
for  the  benefit  of  unfortunates.  These  are  charitable 
institutions ;  but  of  late  it  has  seemed  as  though  charity 
had  forsaken  some  of  them ;  or,  what  is  more  likely,  had 
been  summarily  shown  the  door  as  an  intruder.  Discov- 
eries are  constantly  being  made  of  brutality,  cruelty  and 
savagery  triumphing  and  reveling  in  these  refuges  sup- 
posed to  be  consecrated  to  beneficence.  These  revelations 
have  startled  the  country ;  they  fill  the  indigent  with  dis- 
may, and  call  for  some  adequate  interposition.  It  may 
be  remembered  how  the  Old  Ladies'  Home,  one  of  the  most 
worthy  charities  in  Chicago,  was  dragged  into  the  news- 
papers, and  how  charges  of  unkind  treatment  were  pre- 
ferred against  the  matron.  This  controversy  was  a  pain- 
ful one.  Some  of  the  most  venerable  beneficiaries  could 
not  tolerate  the  management  of  those  times.  We  shall 
not  enter  into  the  particulars.  A  far  worse  illustration 
of  what  we  are  here  condemning  is  furnished  by  the  nota- 
ble examination  of  the  Tewksbury,  Mass.,  Almshouse, 
where  outrages  and  abominations  too  fearful  to  rehearse 
were  brought  to  light.  When  these  reports  were  read  it 
almost  seemed  as  though  Satan  had  usurped  the  honora- 
ble position  of  Poorhouse  Overseer.  From  among  a  mul- 
titude of  other  cases  which  we  have  collected  there  are  two 
that  render  vivid  the  evils  we  complain  of,  and  which 
inspire  us  with  detestation  of  the  rascally  principals. 
These  instances  we  give  in  the  language  of  the  newspapers 


THE    HALIFAX    POOR   HOUSE.  215 

that  reported  the  tragedies.  Halifax  journals  recount 
with  thrilling  minuteness  the  burning  of  the  city  Poor 
Asylum,  in  which  over  thirty  pauper  inmates  were  burned 
to  death.  In  describing  this  event  the  reporter  of  the 
Times  details  what  unexpected  horrible  things  were  re- 
vealed during  the  search  made  into  the  origin  of  the  fire. 
He  writes  : 

Those  in  the  Halifax  poor-house,  the  inquiry  showed,  were  by 
no  means  fed  as  ordinary  mortals  should  be  ;  the  supply  of  food  was 
not  even  so  great  that  they  might  eat  and  satisfy  their  hunger.  As 
Oliver  Twist  rose  with  his  breakfast  bowl  from  among  his  dozen 
equally  unhappy  and  almost  wholly  unfed  comrades,  and  lifted  his 
frail  voice  in  pleading  for  his  famous  "  more,"  so  in  something  of  a 
like  manner  did  these  poor  inmates  of  the  Halifax  asylum  utter  a 
weak  protest  against  the  scanty  fare  dealt  out  to  them  by  a  too 
economical  board  of  commissioners.  Seldom  were  there  less  than 
four  hundred  people  in  the  building,  and  yet  at  a  time  when  there 
was  at  least  that  number  the  amount  of  milk  allowed  to  be  daily 
consumed,  one  of  the  old  commissioners  examined  at  the  investiga- 
tion told,  reached  the  generous  proportion  of  thirty  quarts,  an  aver- 
age of  a  little  over  a  half  a  gill  for  each,  or  about  a  pint  per  week. 
On  this  grand  amount  of  the  most  nourishing  food  they  received,  and 
the  other  in  probably  like  quantities,  the  larger  number  of  these 
people  were  expected  to  recover  from  illness  and  bring  back  the 
vigor  of  health  ;  children,  of  which  there  were  not  a  few,  to  flourish 
and  grow  on  and  become  strongly  developed  young  lads  and  girls, 
The  ex-commissioner  who  told  this  in  his  examination  said  he  had 
called  the  attention  of  the  others  on  the  board  to  the  disgraceful 
extent  they  were  going  to  keep  down  expenses.  "But  we  must  econ- 
omize," they  replied;  "keep  the  expenditure  down  to  the  lowest 
possible." 

The  work  of  economizing  went  on,  and  the  supply  of  milk  did 
not  increase.  The  new  board  came  in  a  few  years  ago  and* they 
economized,  too  ;  they  attempted  to  save  more  than  their  predecessors 
did.  One  of  their  number  said  at  the  investigation  they  had  the 
satisfaction  of  being  able  to  cut  down  the  daily  cost  of  the  support  of 
earh  pauper  one-half  cent  more.  Pious  sympathy  and  advice  were 
once  given  by  the  city  clergymen  paid  for  their  services,  but  their 
remuneration  was  withdrawn  and  the  sick  and  dying  received  their 
visits  when  it  suited  their  convenience  to  come.  The  pay  of  those 


216  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

doing  the  great  amount  of  work  required  in  the  running  of  such  an 
immense  institution — the  bakers,  cooks,  engineer,  fireman,  wardens, 
nurses,  of  everybody  connected  with  the  building  under  the  superin- 
tendent— was  also  either  decreased  or  taken  away  altogether,  and 
at  last  almost  the  only  one  receiving  remuneration  for  his  services 
was  the  engineer,  one  or  two  of  the  remainder,  made  up  of  pauper 
inmates,  getting  perhaps  $1  per  month.  And  now  the  result  of  all 
this  great  curtailment  of  expenditure  has  come,  and  the  public  have 
risen  in  indignation  at  the  inexcusable  carelessness  of  the  board  of 
charities  in  not  providing  an  efficient  fire  brigade  in  the  building  to 
protect  the  safety  of  its  inmates.  The  investigation  demanded  has 
closed — with  what  satisfaction  ?  The  real  origin  of  the  fire  is  as 
great  a  mystery  as  ever ;  the  parties  principally  to  be  blamed  for  the 
great  sacrifice  of  human  life  move  and  breathe  as  freely  as  before, 
because  no  proof  pointing  directly  to  criminal  negligence  of  duty  on 
their  part  is  to  be  obtained. 

And  so  it  seems  these  wretched  creatures  were  left  to 
starve  and  freeze  by  a  Christian  city,  and  these  enormities 
might  have  continued  but  for  the  searching  and  revealing 
power  of  fire.  But  before  we  comment  directly  on  this 
case,  let  us  look  at  another.  This  one  is  American.  The 
place,  the  House  of  Refuge,  Toledo,  0. ;  the  special  victims 
were  boys  and  girls,  qne  of  whom  through  a  happy  train  of 
circumstances  made  his  escape,  and  related  this  story  of  his 
sufferings  before  a  magistrate  : 

After  the  men  arrested  me  I  was  handcuffed,  put  on  a  train  and 
taken  to  Toledo.  The  men  didn't  tell  rne  what  I  had  done,  didn't 
show  me  any  papers,  and  didn't  take  me  into  any  court  or  before  any 
judge.  In  the  refuge  I  had  to  make  twenty  beds,  scrub  a  floor,  and 
knit  thirty -six  pairs  of  socks  with  a  machine  a  day,  whether  sick  or 
well.  Every  boy  who  fails  to  knit  his  full  quota  of  socks  gets 
whipped.  Superintendent  McDonald  does  the  whipping  himself. 
He  uses  a  strap  cut  out  of  sole  leather,  about  two  feet  long  and  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  thick.  He'd  make  us  get  down  on  our  hands  and 
knees  when  he'd  whip  us.  These  are  marks  of  some  of  the  whip- 
pings I  got  (and  he  rolled  up  the  leg  of  his  pantaloons  and  showed 
cruel  scars).  I  have  them  all  over  my  body.  McDonald  would 
nearly  always  whip  us  till  the  blood  would  run.  Once  I  fainted 
twice  during  the  whipping.  The  reason  I  wouldn't  be  let  home  with 


TOLEDO   HOUSE   OF   REFUGE.  217 

my  brother  when  he  came  after  me  in  September  was  that  I  was 
sick  in  bed  from  a  whipping  I  got  and  had  cuts  all  over  my  back  and 
legs.  McDonald  didn't  want  to  let  me  out  in  that  condition.  The 
food  we  got  wasn't  fit  to  eat.  The  meat  would  often  be  running 
alive  with  maggots.  One  hungry  boy  was  whipped  till  he  couldn't 
stand  up  for  stealing  a  piece  of  chicken  off  McDonald's  table.  We 
usen't  to  go  to  school  except  when  the  directors  or  members  of  the 
legislature  would  be  coming.  Whenever  they  came  McDonald  would 
warn  us  to  behave  well,  and  to  tell  any  of  the  legislators  who  might 
ask  us  how  we  liked  the  refuge  that  we  liked  it  ever  so  much,  and 
would  rather  be  in  it  than  in  our  own  homes.  In  the  winter  we  had 
to  carry  the  ice  up  from  the  river  to  fill  the  ice-houses. 

We  have  read  authenticated  accounts  in  the  English  blue 
books  which  go  to  show  that  the  condition  of  the  old-time 
slaves  in  America  was  really  more  tolerable  than  that  of 
the  Englsh  factory  worker  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century;  but  however  wretched  and  abused  these  poor  toil- 
ers may  have  been,  the  victims  of  Halifax  and  Toledo 
savagery  have  touched  as  deep  a  depth  of  misery.  These 
blue  books  describe  the  deadly  overtaxing  of  women  and 
children  in  mills  and  mines  some  ninety  years  ago.  Then 
they  were  driven  by  the  lash,  and  then  men  were  crazed  by 
excessive  burdens,  then  womanhood  lost  all  semblance  to 
itself  and  perished  by  inches  at  the  looms,  and  then  boys 
and  girls  were  scourged  and  often  killed  by  brutal  over- 
seers. How  like  such  accounts  are  to  the  disreputable 
doings  of  which  we  have  just  read.  Paupers,  too,  are 
kicked,  beaten,  starved,  left  to  burn  or  rot;  the  cruelties 
inflicted  on  them  being  all  the  more  fearful  on  account  of 
their  helpless,  forlorn  and  dependent  position.  We  are 
not  going  to  assert  that  in  general  the  conduct  of  our 
public  institutions  is  reprehensible  and  vicious;  for  we  do 
not  believe  any  such  thing.  As  a  rule  their  management 
was  never  better  than  it  is  now;  but  we  are  afraid  that  ex- 
ceptions to  the  rule  are  neither  few  nor  slight.  What  we 
specially  complain  of  is,  that  when  these  exceptions  are 


218         •    STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

disclosed,  the  howl  of  popular  indignation  they  excite 
usually  dies  away,  and  but  little,  if  anything,  of  a  prac- 
tical character  is  undertaken  to  prevent  the  possibility  of 
their  repetition  elsewhere.  The  impression  made  by  them 
is  often  transient.  No  one  feels  any  particular  responsi- 
bility for  a  reform  and  the  normal  condition  of  indifference 
is  speedily  restored.  An  end  should  be  put  to  these 
scandals,  and  we  have  one  or  two  simple  suggestions 
to  offer  regarding  the  best  way  of  doing  it.  We  would 
have  charges  of  harshness,  neglect  and  maltreatment, 
when  they  need  to  be  made,  brought  not  merely  against 
the  overseers  of  public  institutions,  but,  in  a  sense,  also 
against  the  officials  who  appointed  them.  If  a  commander 
accepts  a  crew,  and  if  through  their  inefficiency  the 
vessel  is  lost,  we  do  not  exonerate  the  officer  for  he  ought 
to  have  known  the  men  to  whose  bravery  and  skill  so 
many  interests  had  to  be  confided.  They  are  condemned, 
but  he  is  not  excused.  We  pronounce  him  culpable; 
for  he  must  either  have  been  incompetent  to  select  and 
govern  the  sailors,  or  indifferent  to  their  character, 
and  on  either  supposition  he  had  no  business  to  tread  the 
quarterdeck.  So,  likewise,  when  the  head  of  an  insane 
asylum,  or  of  any  other  State  charity,  seems  to  find  pleas- 
ure in  choking  the  inmates,  or  permits  male  wardens  and 
nurses  to  invade  the  privacy  of  the  women,  and  confines 
those  who  have  incurred  his  displeasure  in  dark  cells;  or, 
in  a  word,  acts  as  an  oriental  despot — and  such  a  one  was 
found  in  a  Chicago  institution  only  a  few  months  since — 
not  only  should  he  be  imprisoned  at  hard  labor  in  propor- 
tion to  the  sum  of  his  villainy,  but  the  magistrate  who  ap- 
pointed him  should  be  impeached  and  deposed  from  his 
office.  By  favoritism  or  negligence  such  a  magistrate  in- 
sults the  majesty  of  the  citizen  in  the  person  of  the  poor,  and 
he  should  be  remanded  to  private  life.  Were  he  in  whole- 
some fear  of  such  retribution  he  would  be  careful  to 


OFFICIAL    RESPONSIBILITY.  219 

commission  only  responsible  persons,  and  he  would  take 
pains  to  see  that  they  did  their  duty  faithfully  and  efficiently. 
We  believe  in  a  system  of  checks  and  balances,  not  only  in 
the  general  government,  but  in  the  administration  of 
communal  and  national  philanthropy  as  well.  It  is  im- 
possible to  forget  the  woman  who  professed  to  nurse  new- 
born babes,  and  who  found  it  convenient  to  let  the  little 
creatures  fade  and  die;  nor  can  we  have  failed  to  hear  of 
some  policemen  who  are  proficient  in  the  use  of  their  clubs, 
now  hammering  away  at  a  helpless  and  unresisting  prosti- 
tute, and  then  smashing  the  heads  of  harmless  people  who 
happened  to  be  on  the  streets  during  the  car-driver's  strike 
of  1885.  Certainly  a  rigid  system  of  checks  is  imperatively 
demanded.  We  arrange  one  very  promptly  when  gold  is  at 
stake.  Is  humanity  less  precious  than  the  precious  metal? 
No  American  will  surely  admit  that  it  is.  Yet  the  majority 
of  us  do  not  bend  as  much  as  our  little  finger  to  prevent  the 
abuses  we  have  described.  The  heathen  whom  we  are  seek- 
ing to  evangelize  teach  us  a  diviner  way.  In  Japan  the  man 
or  woman  who  countenances  cruelty  toward  a  child  is  exe- 
crated; but  what  shall  be  said  of  those  persons  professing 
Christianity,  who  know  of  the  outrages  committed  beneath 
our  skies,  and  who  yet  pursue  their  way  with  no  tears  in 
their  eyes,  or  help  in  their  hands,  complacently  singing,  as 
though  it  were  their  dearest  creed, — 

He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 

All  things,  both  great  and  small, 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all? 

We  shall  not  answer.  Possibly  our  reply  would  not 
be  complimentary.  But  let  it  suffice,  in  one  thing 
at  least,  the  Japanese  must  stand  nearer  to  the  heart  of 
God  than  the  formal  Christian  who  has  hardly  a  thought 
beyond  the  arduous  task  of  being  " stylish,"  and  who  has 
more  concern  for  an  opera  cloak  than  for  the  girl  who 


220  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

made  it;  and  who  by  her"  petty  tyranny  slowly  crashed 
out  the  life  of  the  poor  seamstress  now  sleeping  in  a 
pauper's  grave  and  waiting  for  the  just  Jehovah  to  take 
vengeance  on  her  adversary.  Well  may  the  fine,  sordid 
lady  fear  the  scrutiny  of  the  "Coming  Day,"  and  well 
may  all  selfish,  egotistical  and  negligent  magistrates,  and 
all  who  have  heaped  cruelties  on  the  unfortunate,  dread 
His  righteous  and  impartial  retribution. 

The  competitions  of  Society  are  as  fruitful  in  suffer- 
ing as  either  of  the  causes  on  which  we  have  animadverted. 
They  constitute  one  of  the  most  distinguishing  features 
of  our  commercial  period;  but  while  they  have  led  to 
many  temporal  blessings  they  have  contributed,  likewise, 
to  the  increase  of  misery.  Without  them,  as  has  fre- 
quently been  proved,  stagnation  would  ensue;  but  with 
them,  as  is  evident  everywhere,  adulterations  and  other 
impositions  are  multiplied.  Competition  is  a  force,  an 
incentive.  It  is  very  like  a  horse  race,  in  that  the  intense 
spirit  of  rivalry,  while  it  stimulates  progress,  induces 
gambling  and  fraud  as  well.  To  it  we  owe  the  cheapening 
of  various  articles  by  which  ihey  are  placed  within  the 
reach  of  persons  of  limited  incomes;  but  then  it  has 
likewise  served  to  create  a  desire  for  these  articles  without 
proportionately  raising  the  wages  of  the  artisan.  Cheap 
goods  often  mean  cheap  labor.  Hence  we  frequently  have 
•what  is  termed  overproduction.  In  reality  the  world 
has  never  yet  been  favored  with  what  this  word  seems  to 
import.  There  has  never  been  at  one  time  more  cloth- 
ing and  other  necessaries  than  were  required  to  pro- 
vide for  the  needs  of  the  people;  there  has  frequently 
been  more  than  they  could  pay  for.  The  citizens  of  our 
country  are  the  largest  consumers  of  our  productions;  and 
when  these  are  increased  beyond  their  ability  to  purchase, 
but  not  their  ability  to  use,  cries  of  "overproduction"  arise 
on  one  side  and  of  distress  on  the  other.  Manufacturers 


CHEAPENING    LABOR.  221 

rush  forward,  seeking  to  outstrip  each  other,  suppos- 
ing that  foreign  markets  will  relieve  them  of  their 
stock,  and  apparently  indifferent  to  the  effect  of  their 
competition  on  the  market  at  home.  For  the  sake  of  sup- 
plying the  former  they  keep  the  wages  of  their  operatives 
down  to  the  lowest  point,  and  thus  reduce  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  latter.  The  foreign  market,  unless  wars  are 
being  waged,  does  not  remunerate  as  they  expected;  the 
home  market  has  been  impoverished,  and  so  they  find 
themselves  with  more  material  on  hand  than  can  be  dis- 
posed of,  and  looms  are  stopped,  mills  closed  and  general 
financial  stringency  prevails.  It  is  apparent  from  these 
constantly  recurring  depressions  that  competition  is  car- 
ried too  far,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  restrained  by  the  con- 
sideration that  its  abuse  will  in  the  long  run  frustrate  its 
object.  We  read  in  the  Inter  Ocean  of  July  1st,  1879,  of 
a  wretched  tailor  who  committed  suicide  near  the  Douglas 
monument,  because  he  had  been  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment. He  had  demanded  a  half  a  cent  more  than  he 
received  for  each  piece  he  pressed,  and  another  man 
undertook  to  do  it  for  less.  Having  children  to  support, 
and  seeing  no  place  for  himself  in  the  world,  he  got  out 
of  it.  We  blame  him  for  his  cowardice,  but  we  also 
blame  his  fellow-craftsman  for  his  rivalry;  and  above  all 
we  blame  the  employer  for  his  despicable  greed.  Both 
the  rival  and  the  employer  carried  competition  to  the 
extreme  of  insanity;  and  if  it  is  ever  to  be  pushed  in  this 
manner,  the  despairing  sorrow  of  our  poor  tailor  will 
overtake  thousands.  This  principle  uncontrolled  by 
Christian  sentiment  and  unchecked  by  some  other  prin- 
ciple, such  as  cooperation,  leads  merchants  to  unjusti- 
fiable acts.  To  prevent  others  from  succeding  in  their 
line  they  frequently  try  to  undersell  them;  and  to  make 
up  their  losses  underpay  their  clerks;  and  thus  bankrupt 
the  one  and  impoverish  the  other.  A  former  dry  goods 


222  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

dealer  of  New  York  is  credited  with  these  disreputable 
practices  by  which  his  millions  were  multiplied.  And 
we  are  not  surprised  that  the  late  Mr.  Vanderbilt  did 
everthing  he  could  to  obtain  control  of  contending  rail- 
roads; for  his  father,  the  Commodore,  it  is  said,  ran  a 
ferry-boat  in  opposition  to  his  mother.  "What  is  bred  in 
the  bone  will  never  be  out  in  the  flesh." 

Though  much  more  could  be  written  regarding  the  evils 
of  excessive  competition  we  shall  not  dishearten  our  readers 
with  further  sickening  details,  but  attempt,  what  must  be 
of  more  interest  to  them,  to  indicate  how  it  can  be  kept 
within  reasonable  bounds.  We  would  suggest  at  the  outset 
that  as  the  home  consumption  of  what  we  produce  is  a 
more  important  item  than  the  demands  of  foreign  countries 
wages  should  always  be  the  last  thing  to  reduce.  Do  not 
cripple  your  buyers,  and  the  greatest  number  of  buyers  is 
composed  of  working  people.  In  our  opinion  employers 
should  agree  among  themselves  on  the  highest  rates  that 
can  be  afforded  in  return  for  labor;  and  the  rivalry  between 
them  should  consist  in  the  energy,  tact  and  push  they  can 
introduce  into  the  conduct  of  their  business.  An  illustration 
of  our  meaning  is  furnished  by  the  New  York  Stock  Ex- 
change. There  the  same  commissions  are  charged,  and  the 
difference  in  results  depends  on  the  nerve  and  discernment 
of  the  operator.  One  succeeds  where  another  becomes 
bankrupt;  but  the  one  does  not  bid  for  custom  by  accept- 
ing a  quarter  or  an  eighth  of  a  cent  less  than  the  other. 
Every  vocation  ought  to  have  its  guild,  and  each  guild 
should  determine  along  what  lines  competition  is  honora- 
ble and  advantageous  to  the  country  at  large.  Were  the 
artisan  not  only  paid  a  fixed  price,  but  allowed  a  certain 
percentage  of  the  profits  proportionate  to  his  good  be- 
havior, industry  and  skill,  a  judicious  rivalry  would  be 
stimulated,  and  from  it  would  result  greater  contentment, 
more  self-respect  and  a  superior  quality  of  workmanship. 


FOLLY   OF   STRIKES.  223 

By  some  such  arrangements  as  these  the  relations  between 
capital  and  labor  would  not  be  as  strained  as  they  are 
now  ;  there  would  be  far  less  distress  and  suffering  in  the 
land,  and  the  possibility  of  strikes  would  be  reduced  to  the 
minimum.  This  is  unquestionably  a  most  desirable  end 
to  be  gained.  Strikes  are  a  costly  and  a  very  unsatisfactory 
luxury,  particularly  to  the  striker.  They  very  rarely  bene- 
fit him  permanently,  and  while  they  may  occasionally  rem- 
edy some  ills  they  are  altogether  too  expensive  and  uncer- 
tain to  be  relied  on.  In  1829  the  Manchester  spinners  lost 
$1,250,000  in  wages;  during  the  following  year  the  spin- 
ners at  Ashton  about  as  much  ;  in  1836,  at  Preston,  $286,- 
000,  and  in  1854  their  successors  in  the  mills  sacrificed  in 
thirty-six  weeks  $2,100,000.  During  the  shoemakers' 
struggle  in  Chicago  enough  money  was  squandered  to 
have  started  cooperative  shops,  where  all,  or  nearly  all, 
could  have  been  employed.  Nor  is  there  any  telling  how 
many  thousands  have  been  wasted  by  the  Knights  of 
Labor  in  their  unwise  assault  on  the  railroad  system  of 
the  Southwest  in  1866,  nor  how  many  millions  have  been 
sacrificed  by  hasty  strikes  to  secure  the  eight-hour  day. 
These  vast  sums  usually  come  from  the  products  of  the 
frugal  who  pay  their  dues  to  the  union,  and  are  frequently 
wasted  at  the  instigation  of  the  idle  and  intemperate,  or 
in  their  interest.  Better,  then,  have  as  little  to  do  with 
these  heroic  measures  as  possible,  and  to  deprive  them  of 
their  motive  let  the  recommendations  we  have  made  be 
generally  adopted.  When  the  workman  is  treated  as  a 
man,  and  when  he  has  a  moderate  share  in  the  profits  of 
the  business  he  is  helping  to  build  up,  strikes  will  be  use- 
less, and  will  be  relegated  to  the  dark  past,  when  Political 
Economy  was  in  its  infancy. 

We  have  in  a  previous  paper  referred  to  the  value  of 
cooperation,  and  we  again  touch  on  the  subject  because  it 
is  the  true  antidote  of  excessive  competition.  The  one 


224  STUDIES   Itf   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

ought  to  be  set  over  against  the  other.  Both  are  impor- 
tant, and  both  are  needed  to  temper  and  perfect  each  other. 
Many  forms  of  business  can  be  organized  and  conducted  on 
the  principle  of  cooperation  and  many  others  can  be  ren- 
dered more  just  and  humane  by  its  partial  adoption  ;  but 
we  have  revived  this  topic  in  the  present  connection  for 
the  purpose  of  pointing  out  a  special  service  which  may 
be  rendered  by  a  wise  combination  on  the  part  of  the 
rich.  What  we  have  in  mind  would  draw  these  two  orders 
close  together  ;  would  create  a  good  understanding  between 
them,  and  would  abate  manifold  sufferings.  We  must  all 
be  aware  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  decent, 
comfortable  dwellings,  which  the  artisan  class  can  call 
its  own,  should  be  placed  within  the  reach  of  its  pocket, 
and  not  too  far  from  the  workshops.  The  want  of  such 
homes  is  indeed  a  very  actual  and  pressing  one.  Were  they 
supplied  the  now  afflicted  inmates  of  squalid  tenements 
would  be  saved  from  bad  health,  impure  living,  liquor-crav- 
ing and  a  multitude  of  other  curses  which  seem  inseparable 
from  filth,  overcrowding  and  hopelessness.  In  a  country 
like  ours  the  difficulties  surrounding  this  work  are  not 
insuperable,  arid  in  fact  are  only  trifling.  An  example 
of  what  can  be  accomplished  in  this  direction  through  ju- 
dicious cooperation  has  been  furnished  by  Havre,  France  ; 
and  as  we  read  we  are  greatly  surprised  that  so  grand  a 
work  could  be  wrought  so  easily  in  the  old  world.  The 
report,  which  we  quote,  was  published  in  The  New  York 
Examiner  several  months  ago : 

An  interesting  experiment  in  providing  homes  for  the  poor  has 
been  for  some  time  in  progress  in  the -city  of  Havre,  France,  under 
the  auspices  of  public  spirited  gentlemen,  among  them  the  mayor  of 
the  city  and  the  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce .  They 
observed  that  the  poorest  people  pay  a  higher  rent  for  their  tenements, 
in  proportion  to  the  accommodation  they  get,  than  those  who  are  in 
more  comfortable  circumstances.  On  investigation  they  learned, 
what  any  tenement-house  agent  could  have  told  them,  that  two  suffl- 


HOMES  FOE  THE   PEOPLE.  225 

cient  reasons  exist  for  this  discrimination — first,  the  tenants  own  no 
personal  property  which  could  be  attached  as  security  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  rent ;  and  second,  it  costs  Court  of  Appeals,  and  in  the 
meantime  punishment  is  delayed. 

But  how  could  the  evil  be  remedied  ?  The  answer  which  these 
gentlemen  worked  out  was  not  a  strictly  original  one,  but  yet  pos- 
seased  some  peculiarities  of  its  own.  An  incorporated  company  was 
formed,  with  the  modest  capital  of  $40,000,  to  which  the  city  added 
$5,000  as  a  gift.  It  was  determined  that  four  per  cent  interest  on  the 
investment  was  all  that  should  be  expected,  and  that  the  grand  aim 
should  be  to  enable  the  poor  tenant  to  buy  the  house  he  occupied. 
On  this  basis  building  operations  were  begun.  A  tract  of  land  was 
purchased,  and  divided  into  small  lots  varying  in  area  from  1,000  to 
1,300  square  feet.  On  these  were  built  snug  little  cottages,  two 
stories  high,  with  a  nice  yard  at  front  and  rear.  They  cost,  with  the 
land,  less  than  $600,  but  were  large  enough  to  house  a  good-sized 
family  comfortably  and  decently.  The  cottages  were  rented  for  $60 
a  year,  with  the  agreement  that  if  the  rent  were  paid  regularly  for 
fifteen  years,  the  tenant  should  become  the  absolute  owner  of  the 
property.  Nominally  the  rent  was  divided  into  two  portions,  $42 
being  regarded  as  rent,  and  the  remainder  as  a  sinking  fund  payment. 
It  was  also  provided  that  if  for  any  cause  the  tenant  should  wish  to 
give  up  the  house,  the  amount  of  his  contributions  to  the  sinking 
fund  should  be  returned  to  him,  with  interest  at  three  per  cent,  less  a 
certain  deduction  for  the  expense  of  changing  tenants.  On  the  other 
hand  he  was  encouraged  to  anticipate  his  payments  by  an  allowance 
of  five  per  cent  interest  on  all  sums  paid  before  they  were  due. 

The  result  of  this  wisely  devised  scheme  has  been  most  satisfac- 
tory. One  hundred  and  seventeen  houses  have  thus  far  been  built, 
of  which  fifty -six  have  already  become  the  property  of  their  occu- 
pants, and  twenty  more  will  soon  be  transferred,  although  the  com- 
pany was  only  incorporated  in  1871 

Now  what  is  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  some  such 
plan  in  this  country  ?  We  have  rich  men,  of  good  busi- 
ness judgment,  who  could  combine  and  in  a  few  years 
fully  and  comfortably  house  our  population,  and  with 
no  detriment  to  themselves.  They  need  not  really 
spend  a  penny  of  their  own  money,  and  yet  they  can 
effect  a  change  which  would  do  more  to  promote  civiliza- 

15 


226  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

tion,  to  preserve  the  sacredness  of  the  family,  to  break 
up  Socialism  and  empty  dram-shops  than  anything 
else  excepting  the  suppression  of  the  liquor  traffic  and 
the  spread  of  the  gospel.  Let  companies  of  citizens  be 
formed  in  our  cities  and  towns  for  this  purpose,  and  let 
them  seek  also  the  support  and  sympathy  of  those  whom 
they  would  benefit  by  giving  their  representatives  a  place 
on  their  Boards  of  Direction.  These  associations  could 
open  savings  banks,  that  the  people  might  be  encouraged 
to  set  apart  each  week  a  portion  of  their  earnings  for  the 
purchase  of  a  home.  This  policy  would  lead  to  the 
accumulation  of  capital,  so  that  money  needed  could  ulti- 
mately be  borrowed  from  depositors  ;  who  would  also  foster 
a  more  general  spirit  of  thrift.  Personally,  we  would 
rather  be  instrumental  in  starting  such  an  enterprise  as 
this  than  we  would  be  in  founding  and  endowing  an  art 
gallery ;  and  then,  as  to  its  practicability,  there  are  no 
more  obstacles  in  the  way  than  are  usually  found  obstruct- 
ing the  beginning  of  any  new  movement. 

We  have  yet  more  to  say  about  cooperation  ;  but  before 
we  express  what  is  on  our  mind,  we  would  consider  some 
objectionable  features  of  corporations  and  monopolies, 
especially  in  their  relations  to  the  welfare  of  Society. 
A  "corporation,"  as  the  name  denotes,  is  a  body,  and  may 
be  a  monopoly,  but  not  necessarily  so,  as  it  may  have 
rivals  in  its  operations  and  aims.  We  gain  a  clear  idea  of 
its  essential  nature  and  of  several  of  its  obnoxious  charac- 
teristics from  an  article  penned  by  Rev.  Samuel  S.  Harris, 
LL.  D.,  published  in  Christian  Thought.  One  paragraph 
we  quote,  which,  though  long,  will  repay  every  one  who 
reads.  Referring  to  some  significant  facts,  he  writes  : 

The  first  of  these  is  that  the  corporation  is  not  a  natural  but  an 
artificial  agency,  and  that  its  design  is  to  countervail  or  avoid  the 
operation  of  certain  great  natural  laws,  which,  because  they  are 
natural  are  presumably  salutary.  It  is  a  natural  law  that  the  man 


CORPORATIONS.  227 

who  acquires  capital  shall  administer  it,  his  administration  of  it  and 
his  responsibility  for  such  administration  being  of  the  essence  of  his 
proprietorship;  and  that  such  use  of  it  should  cease  with  his  death. 
In  other  words,  the  natural  law  which  operates  to  prevent  the  irre- 
sponsible use  of  capital,  and  the  undue  accumulation  of  it,  is  the 
law  of  personal  responsibility  for  what  a  man  has,  and  that  it  shall  be 
distributed  at  his  death.  Now  both  of  these  natural  provisions  are 
avoided  by  the  law  of  corporations.  The  corporation  is  a  person  that 
does  not  die.  With  accumulating  resources  and  accumulating  power 
it  goes  on  in  its  way  defying  the  law  of  death  which  arrests  all  personal 
enterprises.  And  not  only  in  duration  but  in  range,  its  power  is  ex- 
tended far  beyond  that  of  any  individual  or  combination  of  individ- 
uals. The  natural  law  is  that  a  man  may  wield  as  much  power  in 
the  shape  of  capital  as  he  can  gain  by  industry  or  inheritance'.  But 
here  is  an  artificial  person  that  is  allowed  to  wield  the  power  which  a 
thousand  or  a  hundred  thousand  men  have  gained,  and  do  this  for  an 
unlimited  time,  subject  to  no  risk  or  chance  of  death  or  decrepitude. 
It  is  easy  to  see  what  an  enormous  advantage  is  given  to  capital  as 
such  by  such  an  arrangement  as  this.  And  when  to  this  is  added 
the  further  consideration  already  alluded  to,  that  this  accumulated 
power  is  placed  in  virtually  impersonal  hands,  that  the  natural  pro- 
prietors and  proper  administrators  of  all  this  capital  are  emancipated 
by  this  legal  device  from  their  proper  and  personal  responsibilities, 
transferring  the  administration  of  their  wealth  to  official  agents 
or  overlookers,  it  is  well  seen  that  capital  has  been  clothed  by  the 
state  with  exceptional  privileges  and  enormous  powers,  which  place 
the  mere  individual  who  attempts  to  compete  with  it  at  an  immense 
disadvantage. 

Dr.  Harris  has  rightly  said  that  the  individual  who 
attempts  to  compete  with  this  soulless  organism  is  at  an 
immense  disadvantage;  and  consequently  it  has  been  the 
prolific  source  of  wretchedness  to  many  people,  and  is  so 
still.  Mr.  Godwin  Moody  has  shown  how  difficult  and 
next  to  impossible  it  is  for  the  farmer  to  hold  his  own 
against  the  great  corporation  farms  of  the  West.  He  sinks 
into  beggary  before  their  gigantic  transactions;  and  one  can 
easily  picture  his  misery  as  he  sees  himself  ruined,  not  by 
any  fault  of  his  own,  but  by  an  irresitible  combination 
which  has  received  its  power  from  that  government  which 


228  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

he  has  supported,  and  from  the  administration  which  boasts 
that  it  saved  the  Union.  Well,  we  may  rest  assured  if  the 
land-grab  system  continues  and  if  the  "  bonanza  farms " 
are  not  suppressed,  some  more  Union-saving  will  be  needed 
before  long,  and  these  sons  of  the  soil  will  be  the  men  by 
whom  its  integrity  will  be  imperiled.  What  is  true  of 
agricultural  affairs  is  equally  true  of  every  department  of 
commerce.  The  unit  in  the  long  run,  and  frequently  the 
"run"  is  very  short,  succumbs  to  the  corporation.  There 
are,  of  course,  instances  where  one  man  is  more  fertile  in 
resources,  and  is  more  successful  than  several  men,  how- 
ever compactly  they  may  be  organized.  But  this  is 
not  usual.  The  rule  as  a  general  thing  works  the  other 
way.  These  organizations  usually  carry  everything  before 
them,  destroying  the  old-time  sympathy  between  em- 
ployer and  employed,  and  impairing  the  independence 
as  well  as  the  fortune  of  the  private  citizen.  They  are 
accused,  and  we  think  with  justice,  of  various  devices  to 
escape  bearing  their  proportion  of  taxation,  such  as  the 
making  of  inadequate  returns  of  their  property  and  busi- 
ness to  the  government;  and  it  is  alleged  that  in  many 
instances  they  use  their  advantages  to  deceive  the  public, 
and  by  manipulations  which  will  not  bear  honest  scrutiny 
defraud  the  stockholders  who  have  no  direct  share  in  the 
management.  And  if  these  charges  and  others  like  them 
can  be  sustained,  and  that  they  can  be,  few  will  doubt, 
what  tremendous  power  must  a  corporation  wield  when  it 
ceases  to  have  any  competitors  in  its  special  sphere — that 
is,  when  it  becomes,  or  is  from  the  beginning  of  its  exist- 
ence, a  monopoly. 

The  term  "monopoly"  was  originally  employed  in 
English  history  to  describe  grants  from  the  crown  or  from 
parliament,  by  which  sole  control  of  some  particular  ar- 
ticle was  given  to  an  individual,  generally  as  a  reward  for 
services  rendered  the  nation  or  supposed  to  have  been  ren- 


RISE   OF   MONOPOLY.  229 

dered.  Sir  Edward  Coke,  however,  laid  it  down  as  a 
principle  of  ancient  Common  Law  that  the  king  could 
only  confer  a  temporary  monopoly.  This  decision  has 
never  been  overruled.  Queen  Elizabeth  carried  the  royal 
prerogative  beyond  all  such  limitations  as  this,  and  was  so 
lavish  with  her  favors  that  some  of  the  necessaries  of  life 
were  taxed  in  the  interest  of  private  parties.  But,  after 
many  agitations  at  different  times,  in  1623  a  statute 
was  enacted  condemning  monopolies,  with  the  exception 
of  those  created  by  parliament  or  designed  to  protect 
new  inventions.  Since  then  the  nearest  approach  to  an 
infringement  of  these  provisions  in  England  is  found  in 
the  extraordinary  franchise  granted  railroads,  canals,  and 
gas  and  water  companies.  Public  feeling  in  that  kingdom 
is  very  strong  in  its  opposition  to  the  privileges  and  exem- 
tions  enjoyed  by  such  corporations.  The  Continent  partici- 
pates in  this  antipathy,  and  in  the  United  States  there  is 
a  growing  determination  that  monopolies  shall  not  be  per- 
mitted permanently  to  exist  in  the  land.  As  it  is,  there 
are  not  really  very  many  in  our  country.  Of  course  we 
have  some.  For  instance,  the  elevated  railroads  in  New 
York  may  be  thus  classed,  as  they  have  the  exclusive  right 
to  transmit  passengers  over  prescribed  routes.  An  ordi- 
nary surface  railroad,  also,  has  this  character,  when  other 
companies  are  restrained  from  doing  business  along  its  line 
of  travel.  So  in  the  case  of  the  telephone,  and  of  the 
various  motors  now  claiming  public  attention.  They  are 
protected  by  patents,  and  until  these  expire  the  proprie- 
tors can  defy  all  rivals.  In  some  cities  the  water  supply 
and  the  gas  supply  are  by  charter  handed  over  to 
companies,  and  competition  is  next  to  impossible:  these 
are  monopolies.  But  of  late  this  word  has  come  to  be 
somewhat  modified  in  meaning.  It  is  now  frequently 
applied  to  corporations  in  which  enormous  aggregations  of 
capital  are  invested,  and  which  are  administered  by  a 


230  STUDIES   IN  SOCIAL   LIFE. 

small  board  of  directors.  There  may  be  organizations 
similar  to  themselves  and  having  in  view  the  same  end; 
but,  nevertheless,  they  are  spoken  of  as  monopolies,  be- 
cause they  command  immense  resources  before  which 
private  enterprise  usually  succumbs,  and  over  which  the 
majority  or  their  owji  members  have  very  little  control. 
The  complaint  is  that  the  concentration  of  these  large  sums 
of  money  is  at  once  a  temptation  and  a  threat;  a  temptation, 
as  it  leads  in  many  instances  to  a  misappropriation  of  funds; 
and  a  threat,  as  it  often  influences  unscrupulous  persons  to 
attempt  the  corruption  of  justice,  and  encourages  the  im- 
pudent assumption  that  politics  should  subserve  and  govern- 
ment policies  be  shaped  in  their  interests.  A  few  million- 
aires in  New  York  and  several  other  great  centers, like  Boston 
and  Chicago,  as  the  representatives  and  practical  owners  of 
railroads  and  telegraphs,  have  it  in  their  power  to  derange 
values,  to  plunder  their  own  stockholders,  and  to  distress 
and  impoverish  their  employes.  The  semi-monopolies  of 
which  they  are  the  chiefs  magnify  the  supremacy  of  capi- 
tal, and  are  not  altogether  unlike  the  engines  which  some 
of  them  build — very  dangerous  to  the  poor  creatures  who 
happen  to  get  under  their  wheels.  While  they  are  willing 
to  pay  their  presidents  salaries  ranging  from  $10,000  to 
$20,000  a  year,  they  imagine  that  in  the  eternal  fitness  of 
things  a  brakeman  ought  only  to  receive  some  $35  or  $40 
per  month.  Consequently  they  are  exceedingly  unpopular, 
and  there  is  a  widespread  desire,  often  expressed  in  fierce 
mutterings,  that  they  should  be  summarily  and  finally 
suppressed. 

But  how  can  we  dispense  with  them?  While  they  are 
the  source  of  much  mischief,  they  seem  to  be  a  necessary 
evil.  Mr.  Mill  (Political  Economy,  Vol.  II,  chap.  XI, 
§11)  recommends  that  the  extensive  undertakings,  which 
individual  resources  are  not  equal  tox  and  which  now  give 
a  color  of  reason  to  their  existence,  ought  to  be  cared  for 


MORE    PATERNALISM.  231 

and  superintended  by  the  State.  Now  it  is  within  the 
bounds  of  probability  that  this  is  the  only  way  out  of  our 
difficulties,  Government  administration  of  the  Postal 
Service  has  been  eminently  successful,  and  has  in  no  way 
infringed  on  the  rights  or  liberties  of  the  citizen ;  and  so 
has  created  some  degree  of  sentiment  favorable  to  its  man- 
agement of  other  gigantic  interests  involving  the  public 
welfare.  We  cannot,  however,  say  that  we  are  a  convert 
to  this  doctrine.  Still  we  concede  that  it  is  not  like  ap- 
propriating the  land,  and  confiscating  private  property ; 
neither  is  it  offensively  Communistic  in  character.  Tele- 
graphs, railroads,  the  gas  and  the  water  supplies,  also, 
could  be  provided  and  directed  by  the  State,  as  the 
postoffice  is,  without  subverting  individual  rights  or 
seriously  affecting  the  present  order  of  things.  This 
much  may  be  said  in  support  of  the  scheme,  and  con- 
sequently we  do  not  hold  ourselves  bound  by  our  devo- 
tion to  the  American  idea  of  liberty  to  permanently 
oppose  it.  But  at  present  it  does  not  approve  itself  to 
our  judgment.  We  dread  being  over-governed.  Other 
plans  should  be  essayed  before  this  one  is  resorted  to. 
We  are  strengthened  in  this  opinion  by  what  Mr.  Mill 
himself  has  written  in  the  chapter  referred  to ;  for 
while  he  there  recommends  what  we  oppose,  he  very 
forcibly  presents  the  objections  which  have  largely  de- 
termined our  own  views  on  the  subject.  Read  this 
passage : 

The  true  reasons  in  favor  of  leaving  voluntarily  to  associations  all 
such  things  as  they  are  competent  to  perform,  would  exist  in  equal 
strength  if  it  were  certain  that  the  work  itself  would  be  as  well  or 
better  done  by  public  officers.  These  reasons  have  been  already 
pointed  out :  the  mischief  of  overloading  the  chief  functionaries  of 
Government  with  demands  on  their  attention,  and  diverting  them 
from  duties  which  they  alone  can  discharge,  to  objects  which  can  be 
sufficiently  well  attained  without  them  :  the  danger  of  unnecessarily 
swelling  the  direct  power  and  indirect  influence  of  Government,  and 


232  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

multiplying  occasions  of  collision  between  its  agents  and  private 
citizens ;  and  the  still  greater  inexpediency  of  concentrating  in  a 
dominant  bureaucracy,  all  the  skill  and  experience  in  the  manage- 
ment of  large  interests,  and  all  the  power  of  organized  action,  existing 
in  the  community ;  a  practice  which  keeps  the  citizens  in  a  relation 
to  the  Government  like  that  of  children  to  their  guardians  and  is  a 
main  cause  of  the  inferior  capacity  for  political  life  which  has 
hitherto  characterized  the  overgoverned  countries  of  the  Continent, 
whether  with  or  without  the  forms  of  representative  government. 

Moreover,  in  confirmation  of  our  suspicions  relative  to 
the  advisability  and  value  of  the  Communal  remedy,  we 
have  the  following  account  of  its  action  in  France,  taken 
from  the  Dictionnaire  de  Economic  Politique: 

In  France  the  initiative  and  direction  of  all  these  works  (i.  e., 
harbors,  internal  navigations,  roads,  bridges,  railways)  belong  to  the 
central  authority,  acting  by  means  of  a  numerous  and  expensive 
body,  the  engineers  of  roads  and  bridges  ("ingenieurs  des  ponts 
et  chaussees").  Most  of  the  great  channels  of  communication  are 
established  at  the  cost  of  the  public,  according  to  the  schemes  or 
designs  "of  these  engineering  officials ;  the  schemes  which  are  started 
independently  of  them  are  subjected  to  their  control ;  and  it  scarcely 
ever  happens  that  such  schemes  are  accepted  by  the  authorities 
against  their  advice.  The  result  of  this  regime  is,  that  in  respect  of 
works  of  this  character  the  spirit  of  enterprise  is  wholly  discouraged, 
and  that  scarcely  anything  is  accomplished  except  at  the  instance 
and  by  the  impulse  of  the  body  of  official  engineers,  an  impulse 
which,  for  reasons  which  we  have  given  under  the  title  "  Fonctio- 
naries,"  is  incomparably  less  powerful  and  less  fertile  than  that  of 
free  industry.  Thus,  none  of  the  great  improvements  in  artificial 
channels  of  communication,  or  in  means  of  transport  which  have 
been  introduced  within  the  last  fifty  years,  have  originated  in  France — 
macadamization  of  roads,  railroads,  locomotives,  suspension  bridges, 
steamboats,  etc. ,  all  are  the  work  of  the  free  and  independent  engi- 
neers of  England  or  America.  The  monopoly  of  our  official  engineers 
is  as  little  adapted  to  improve  and  utilize  inventions  as  to  start 
them.  And  although  our  country  is  one  of  those  in  which  industry 
is  most  highly  developed,  and  in  which  a  multiplicity  of  the  most 
perfect  channels  of  communication — e.  g.  of  railways — is  the  most 
necessary,  we  have  remained  in  this  respect  far  behind  the  United 
States,  England,  Belgium,  etc.  A  further  result  of  the  French 


FATEHXAL1SM    IN    FKAXCE.  233 

system  is  that  the  channels  of  communication  are  distributed  over 
the  country  without  any  real  proportion  to  the  wants  of  its  several 
districts,  and  that  their  expense,  instead  of  being  supported,  as  in 
England,  by  tolls  levied  on  those  who  use  them,  and  in  proportion  to 
the  use  they  make  of  them,  falls,  without  reference  to  the  service 
rendered,  on  all  contributors  alike. 

From  these  extracts  we  gather  that  the  plan  advocated 
by  Mr.  Mill  is  not  without  serious  drawbacks,  and  that 
the  United  States  had  better  pause  and  deliberate  before 
they  commit  themselves  to  its  adoption. 

It  seems  to  us  that  some  less  drastic  measures  can  be 
devised ;  and  that .  it  must  be  possible  to  provide  against 
the  most  flagrant  evils  of  corporations,  and  prevent  the 
increase  of  monopolies,  without  rendering  the  country 
liable  to  the  injury  which  is  being  wrought  in  France. 
Mr.  David  Dudley  Field  agrees  with  us  in  this  opinion, 
and  in  a  paper  on  the  subject  has  made  several  important 
suggestions.  We  give  our  readers  the  benefit  of  his  prin- 
cipal thought,  and  shall  make  it  the  introduction  to  some 
reflections  in  the  same  direction.  He  says  : 

For  our  times  and  our  wants  wise  and  comprehensive  legislation 
is  needed.  What  it  should  be,  this  is  not  the  place  to  discuss.  The 
subject  is  too  large  for  a  single  paper.  But  one  thing  is  certain :  the 
State  should  keep  and  exercise  control  over  every  corporate  franchise. 
A  franchise  is  a  privilege  that  the  possessor  enjoys  beyond  the  rest  of 
the  citizens.  For  that  reason  it  should  never  be  irrevocable. 
Equality  of  rights  is  the  foundation  of  republican  government,  and 
whenever,  for  any  reason,  some  out  of  the  body  of  citizens  are 
invested  with  peculiar  privileges,  these  should  be  revocable  at  all 
times,  saving  such  guarantees  as  the  inviolability  of  property  requires. 
In  other  words,  it  should  be  a  cardinal  maxim  that  there  can  be  no 
private  property  in  privilege.  It  is  enough  here  to  say  that  I  think 
it  possible  to  protect  the  rights  of  the  State,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
rights  of  the  citizen  who  has  received  the  grant  of  a  franchise  and 
under  it  has  invested  his  property. 

We  concur  in  this  view  ;  but  in  our  judgment  the 
recommendation  does  not  go  far  enough.  It  is  too  conserv- 


234  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

ative.  As  corporations  are  creatures  of  law,  and  as  it  is 
mischievous  in  various  respects  for  one  man  or  a  very  few 
men  to  own  enough  stock  to  make  them  monopolists  and 
autocrats,  we  would  have  the  State  limit  the  amount  that 
may  legally  be  held  by  an  individual.  Suppose  the  limit 
prescribed  were  such  that  to  render  the  organization  a  fact 
the  shares  would  have  to  be  widely  distributed ;  then 
no  person  would  be  able,  without  fraud,  to  obtain  con- 
trol of  a  sufficient  number  so  as  to  "corner"  the  rest ;  and 
the  concern  could  not  be  administered  in  the  interest  of, 
and  for  the  benefit  of,  a  selfish  and  conscienceless  clique. 
It  may  be  said  that  capital  would  not  seek  investment 
on  any  such  terms.  We  are  not  so  sure  of  that.  Why 
should  it  not?  It  would  be  as  safe  as  it  is  now,  the  differ- 
ence being  only  that  it  would  be  unable  to  realize  the 
enormous  profits  which  are  gained  under  the  present  loose 
system.  But  if  millionaires  stood  back  the  people  would 
not;  and  they  would  be  glad  to  trust  their  savings  to  cor- 
porations which  could  never  become  the  helpless  prey  of  a 
few  unscrupulous  men.  Moreover,  it  would  be  an  advan- 
tage to  the  nation  for  the  industrial  classes  to  be  repre- 
sented in  railroad,  telegraph  and  other  great  companies. 
Such  representation  would  be  fatal  to  the  progress  of 
Socialism,  and  would  go  far  toward  creating  a  spirit  of 
contentment.  But  in  addition  to  this  restriction,  we 
would  have  the  issuing  and  reissuing  of  stocks  and  bonds 
under  the  direct  surveillance  of  Government ;  and  we 
would  have  the  robbing  of  the  original  shareholders,  now 
so  common,  that  a  shrewd  lot  of  manipulators  may  be 
enriched,  a  criminal  proceeding  punishable  in  the  peni- 
tentiary. In  other  words  instead  of  the  State  undertak- 
ing to  carry  out  every  vast  enterprise  which  heretofore  has 
been  managed  by  combinations  of  citizens,  let  her  see  to  it 
that  such  charters  are  granted  to  corporations  as  will  pre- 
vent them  ever  becoming  the  private  property  of  one  or 


CONTROLLING    CORPORATIONS.  235 

two  wealthy  schemers,  and  let  her  energetically  compel 
them  to  fulfill  the  compact  they  have  entered  into.  Then 
securities  of  almost  every  description,  usually  regarded  as 
too  insecure  for  permanent  investment,  and  which  are 
treated  now  mainly  as  a  convenient  speculative  medium, 
would  be  worth  possessing.  As  it  is  these  printed  bits  of 
paper,  valued  on  their  face  away  up  in  the  millions,  have 
been  so  "doctored  "  and  so  tampered  with  that  the  people 
are  suspicious  of  them,  and  knowing  that  "kings  of  the 
board"  and  "princes  of  the  street"  think  it  a  fine  thing 
"  to  scoop  in  the  boys/'  they  turn  from  them  with  fear 
and  detestation.  Of  course  the  legislation  we  propose 
would  seriously  interfere  with  the  operations  of  the  Stock 
Exchange.  But  this  would  be  no  real  loss  to  the  country. 
It  would  curtail  gambling,  and  would  force  brokers  to  sell 
only  what  they  really  owned.  This  would  be  no  grievous 
affliction,  as  it  would  neither  impair  prosperity  nor  dimin- 
ish honesty.  To  the  contrary,  it  would  increase  both. 
And  finally,  the  conditions  we  have  defined  would  deprive 
gentlemen  of  the  privilege  of  carrying  New  York  Central 
railroads  and  Western  Union  telegraphs  in  their  pockets ; 
would  deliver  multitudes  from  being  puppets  in  the  hands 
of  monopolists ;  and  in  connection  with  the  land  legisla- 
tion already  recommended  in  this  volume,  would  put  an 
end  to  monopolies  themselves. 

Mr.  Field,  in  the  North  American  Review  (May,  1885), 
has  favored  the  public  with  the  statement  of  a  theory 
touching  the  subject  under  consideration  which  we  believe 
is  not  altogether  visionary,  and  which  very  fittingly  sup- 
plements what  we  have  already  quoted  from  his  pen.  This 
is  what  he  proposes: 

Is  there  any  reason  why  corporations  created  for  profit  that 
heretofore  have  been  aggregations  of  capital  only,  should  not  be  made 
aggregations  of  capital  and  labor,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  rep- 
resentatives of  capital  and  labor?  Let  us  suppose  a  manufacturing 


236  STUDIES   IK"    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

corporation  to  be  formed  with  a  view  of  giving  to  all  the  persons 
employed  an  interest  in  the  profits  of  the  establishment.  Divide  the 
nominal  capital  into  shares  of  small  amount,  some  of  them  payable  in 
labor  to  be  contributed;  give  to  the  workman  credit  for  a  part  of  his 
wages,  and  pay  him  the  rest  for  his  daily  living.  Is  this  a  wild 
scheme?  Let  us  see. 

The  plan  supposes  a  cash  capital  sufficient  to  plant  and  stock  the 
establishment,  and  a  credit  capital,  payable  in  labor,  sufficient  to 
work  it.  The  difference  between  such  a  plan  and  the  present  is,  that 
the  latter  requires  a  capital  payable  in  cash  or  its  equivalent  in  other 
property ;  whereas  the  plan  suggested  requires  also  a  credit  capital 
payable  in  labor.  As  the  business  goes  on  now,  the  laborer  has  no 
interest  in  the  capital;  he  works  for  wages  fixed  between  him  and  his 
employer,  upon  a  bargain  in  which  there  is  no  equality  between  the 
parties,  in  which  one  is  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  in  the  power  of  the 
other,  or  at  least  stands  in  such  a  relation  of  dependence  as  is  incom- 
patible with  that  sense  of  self-respect,  that  pride  of  manhood,  which 
should  be  the  patrimony  of  every  American  citizen.  Why  may  not 
the  two  be  made  to  stand  in  the  relation  of  equal  dependence  and 
mutual  respect  ?  Would  not  both  be  better  off  for  the  new  relation  ? 
The  capitalist  shareholder  would  know  that  every  blow  of  the  work- 
man was  given  in  the  interest  of  both,  and  the  workman  would  know 
that  every  good  bargain  of  the  capitalist  tended  to  the  increase  of  his 
daily  bread  and  the  advancement  of  his  family. 

Whether  Mr.  Field  has  given  the  best  method  for  the 
carrying  out  of  this  scheme  is  open  to  question;  but  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  thought  expressed  is  of  the  high- 
est value.  The  idea  that  "  labor,"  which  has  mitigated 
the  harshnesss  of  its  lot  by  cooperation  in  its  own  ranks, 
should  now  gain  benefits  through  the  formation  of  an 
alliance  with  its  ancient  enemy  "capital,"  is  at  once 
unique  and  full  of  promise.  We  believe  in  it ;  for  we 
have  seen  that  the  divorce  of  these  two  mighty  factors  in 
social  progress  has  been  a  source  of  perpetual  mischief. 
They  who  have  been  separated  should  be  joined  together. 
The  hostile  camps  that  have  been  frowning  at  each  other 
this  long  while  should  be  broken  up,  and  the  twin  armies 
of  civilization  be  merged  and  become  one.  Henceforth 


tJNIOK  OF  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR.  237 

the  cooperation,  not  of  labor  with  labor  only,  or  of  capital 
with  capital  exclusively,  but  of  labor  with  capital  and  of 
capital  with  labor,  should  be  our  aim.  When  such  coop- 
eration as  this  is  reached,  then  competition  will  be  mod- 
erated and  restrained  without  being  destroyed;  and  then 
monopoly  will  be  abolished  without  suspending  the  legiti- 
mate workings  of  corporations.  And  then  the  hopes  of  Mr. 
Mill,  which  he  has  stated  with  vigorous  distinctness,  will 
be  in  a  fair  way  of  fulfillment;  for  he  tells  us  that  he  looks 
for  the  time  to  come  when  in  some  way  or  other 

both  private  capitalists  and  associations  will  gradually  find  it 
necessary  to  make  the  entire  body  of  laborers  participants  in  profits. 
Eventually,  and  perhaps  in  a  less  remote  future  than  may  be  sup- 
posed, we  may,  through  the  cooperative  principle,  see  our  way  to  a 
change  in  society  which  would  combine  the  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  individual  with  the  moral,  intellectual  and 
economical  advantages  of  aggregate  production;  and  which,  without 
violence  or  spoliation,  or  even  any  sudden  disturbance  of  existing 
habits  and  expectations,  would  realize,  at  least  in  the  industrial  de- 
partment, the  best  aspirations  of  the  democratic  spirit,  by  putting  an 
end  to  the  division  of  society  into  the  industrious  and  the  idle,  and 
effacing  all  social  distinctions  but  those  fairly  earned  by  personal  serv- 
ices and  exertions. 

There  is  another  and  supreme  cause  of  suffering  in 
Society,  one  that  maddens  and  murders,  and  that  afflicts 
with  unlimited  and  unspeakable  anguish,  which  must  be 
suppressed  if  humanity  is  ever  to  see  brighter  days.  We 
refer  to  VICE,  or  more  accurately,  the  Vices  which  have 
such  vigorous  growth  in  the  hot-bed  of  modern  life. 
These  produce  more  wretchedness  and  despair  than  all 
other  enemies  of  man's  happiness  combined.  Were  the 
social  systems  of  our  most  enlightened  reformers  realizable 
and  realized,  the  survival  of  these  fearful  curses  would 
frustrate  and  blight  their  benevolent  operations.  Vice  is 
the  monster  of  monsters,  arid  it  is  useless  to  talk  about 
measures  of  relief  as  long  as  it  is  permitted  to  destroy. 


238  STUDIES   IK   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

It  is  the  terrible  Python  springing  from  mud  and  wallow- 
ing and  writhing  in  malodorous  floods;  it  is  the  real  Mino- 
taurus  greedily  devouring  our  young  men  and  women;  it  is 
the  serpent-haired  Medusa,  whose  petrifying  fascinations, 
in  spite  of  the  sword-thrusts  of  Perseus,  convert  the  heart 
into  a  stone ;  it  is  the  black  Vulcan,  forging  bolts  of 
deadly  retaliation  for  the  thunder-dealing  hand  of  Jupiter; 
it  is  the  fanciful  but  consuming  Chimaera,  vomiting 
flames  and  filling  the  undying  soul  with  fires  of  remorse; 
yea,  it  is  the  ferryman,  Charon,  grimly  rowing  reveler 
and  roue,  who  are  dead  while  they  live,  across  the  gloomy 
Styx;  and  finally  it  is  the  infernal  domain  itself,  the  very 
Tartarus  of  Perdition,  where,  according  to  Virgil,  only  the 
exceptionally  depraved  are  punished.  Governments  have 
more  to  dread  from  its  influence  than  from  the  wildest 
and  silliest  of  political  heresies.  The  records  of  history 
show  that  immoralities  have  had  more  to  do  with  the 
decline  of  empires,  the  decay  of  cities,  and  the  convul- 
sions of  states  than  the  entire  brood  of  revolutionists, 
anarchists  and  dynamiters.  The  overthrow  of  Greece  and 
Rome  was  due  rather  to  the  emasculating  tendencies  of 
profligacy,  than  to  the  power  of  arms  or  the  mistakes  of 
diplomacy.  Men  will  doubtless  sneer  at  these  ill-omened 
words.  They  have  often  done  so.  The  handwriting  on 
the  wall  rarely  interrupts  the  lascivious  debauch.  Dark 
prophets  of  inevitable  retribution  may  cast  their  shadows 
over  the  Paphian  orgy  unheeded,  as  the  monster-figures 
on  Vesuvius,  which  warned  Pompeii  of  its  impending 
disaster,  were  idly  ridiculed: 

Man  only  mocks  the  peril.     Man  alone 
Defies  the  sulphurous  flame,  the  warning  groan, 
While  instinct,  humbler  guardian,  wakes  and  saves, 
Proud  reason  sleeps  nor  knows  the  doom  it  braves. 

But  this  sad  theme  is  too  vast  and  too  closely  related  to 
every  vital  interest  of  Society  for  us  to  attempt  its  discus- 


THE   MINISTRY    OF   CHARITY.  239 

sion  here,  or  otherwise  than  by  itself.  We  have  merely 
introduced  it  in  this  connection  to  complete  the  circle  of 
evil  agencies  which  are  responsible  for  the  moans  and  sobs 
of  our  afflicted  age,  not  to  explore  its  darkness  or  confront 
its  horrors.  That  repulsive  task  will  be  undertaken  in  the 
following  chapter. 

Many  persons  rely  almost  exclusively  on  charity  as  the 
means  best  suited  to  diminish  and  heal  the  sorrows  of  man- 
kind. Legislative  remedies  they  profess  to  have  no  confi- 
dence in;  and  reforms  in  business  methods  they  smile  at  as 
impracticable.  They  would  in  no  wise  disturb  the  pres- 
ent order  and  if  it  presses  hard  on  some  classes  they  would 
by  princely  gifts  prevent  excessive  chafing.  The  fact  is, 
they  find  it  easier  to  act  benevolently  than  justly;  and 
would  rather  succor  the  unfortunate  than  compensate  ade- 
quately the  industrious.  Charity  makes  multitudes  their 
dependents,  diverts  the  public  mind,  and  renders  it  easier 
for  fraud  and  trickery  to  succeed.  We  dare  not  trust  its 
offices.  They  are  not  equal  to  the  work  its  devotees 
imagine  they  can  perform.  Suffering  never  has  been  and 
never  will  be  effaced  by  their  ministry.  There  will,  doubt- 
less, always  be  cases  where  no  other  agency  can  bring 
deliverance,  and  where  charity  may  safely  be  encouraged. 
We  cannot  dispense  with  its  help;  but  at  best,  this  help 
affords  only  a  temporary  relief.  The  poor,  we  are  told,  we 
shall  ever  have  with  us.  There  will,  very  likely,  always  be 
orphan  children,  or  children  whose  lot  is  more  deplorable, 
having  vicious  parents;  and  widows  whose  meager  earn- 
ings cannot  comfortably  provide  for  their  fatherless  fami- 
lies; and  young  girls  suddenly  thrown  out  of  employment, 
without  friends  to  aid,  driven  to  starvation  or  tempted  to 
shame;  and  laboring  men,  and  men  pursuing  professional 
careers,  prostrated  by  disease,  and  unable  to  meet  their 
increased  expenses;  and  aged  people  whose  means  of 
support  departed  with  their  strength;  and  people  perma- 


240  STUDIES  IX  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

nently  disabled  by  wounds,  the  loss  of  the  faculties,  or  by 
the  bitter  inheritance  of  blindness,  deafness  and  dumbness; 
and  still  others  who  are  the  victims  of  cruel  oppression  and 
wrong.  These  may  fairly  claim  the  sympathy  and  the 
pecuniary  assistance  of  the  rich,  and  assistance  may  usually 
be  extended  without  detriment  to  them  or  to  Society.  But 
at  the  same  time  let  not  too  much  reliance  be  placed  on 
these  means.  Remember  that  beggary,  and  with  it  social 
misery,  has  never  been  diminished,  but  has  rather  increased 
in  proportion  as  money  given  has  taken  the  place  of  money 
earned.  The  Roman  emperors  distributed  corn  and  oil  to 
their  subjects  instead  of  stimulating  industry.  The  Jus- 
tices of  Berks,  in  England,  1795,  supplemented  the  wages 
of  workmen  with  an  allowance  from  the  parish  funds,  in- 
stead of  influencing  their  employers  to  pay  them  a  fairer 
remuneration.  All  parties  would  have  been  better  off  if 
they  had  reversed  their  method.  What  would  have  been 
lost  in  wages  would  have  been  saved  in  taxation,  and  the 
operatives  would  have  preserved  their  self-respect,  and 
would  have  rendered  better  service.  The  wretched  policy 
they  preferred  was  dominant  in  England  until  1860-69, 
and  at  that  date  there  were  some  150,000  paupers  in 
London.  America  has  been  peculiarly  prodigal  in  its  so- 
called  benefactions.  We  do  not  believe  any  country  sur- 
passes her  in  princely  liberality  to  the  needy.  Now  a 
Drexel  distributes  over  $20,000  a  year  among  the  unfortu- 
nate, then  a  Stuart  denotes  $50,000  for  a  lodging  house 
to  shelter  homeless  boys;  and  in  all  of  our  cities  enor- 
mous sums  are  lavished  on  those  who  are  in  adversity. 
Nor  do  we  question  but  that  a  vast  amount  of  good 
has  been  accomplished  by  these  philanthropic  offerings; 
neither  do  we  deny  that  in  many  instances  they  have  been 
deserved;  yet  the  fact  stares  us  in  the  face  that  the  poverty 
and  misery  of  Society  have  not  been  perceptibly  decreased. 
Perhaps  the  explanation  of  this  remarkable  and  discour- 


PERVERSION    OF   CHARITY.  241 

aging  failure  is  not  difficult  to  discover.  Robert  Treat 
Paine  quotes  a  witty  bishop  as  saying  "If  you  pay  a  man 
to  work,  he'll  work,  if  you  pay  him  to  beg,  he'll  beg"; 
and  refers  to  a  Lacedemonian  who  answered  a  mendicant, 
•'If  I  should  give  thee  anything  I  should  but  make 
thee  a  greater  beggar;  for  he  who  first  gave  to  thee 
made  thee  idle,  and  so  determined  thee  to  this  base  way 
of  living."  He  likewise  tells  the  story  of  a  woman  who 
on  passing  one  who  was  seeking  alms  heard  him  utter 
with  much  intensity,  "I  must  then,  I  will  do  it!  I  will 
do  it!"  Fearing  that  he  was  about  to  do  something 
desperate  she  paused,  and  having  filled  his  hand  with 
money,  inquired  what  it  was  he  proposed  attempting  in 
his  rashness.  He  replied,  "  But  for  your  timely  assist- 
ance I  had  almost  resolved  to  go  to  work."  Thus  the 
facility  with  which  he  obtained  cash  only  confirmed  him 
in  his  idleness  and  shiftlessness. 

Excessive,  indiscriminate  charity  breeds  pauperism.  It 
creates  an  immense  army  of  good-for-nothings,  loungers, 
tramps  and  tipplers.  They  perceive  that  honest  toil  is  not 
as  handsomely  rewarded  as  impudent  indigence;  and  it  is 
not  surprising  that  multitudes  should  choose  the  role  of 
the  beggar  in  preference  to  that  of  the  workman.  In  these 
circumstances  mendicancy  naturally  becomes  one  of  the 
fine  arts;  and  Mr.  Paine  says  that  he  saw  an  advertisement 
of  a  Professor  Lazarus  Rooney  proposing  to  teach  it  in  six 
lessons:  but  whether  taught  or  not,  it  has  numerous 
adepts,  who  by  shameless  humbuggery  impose  on  every 
large  community.  Nor  would  we  care  so  much  about 
their  "spoiling  the  Egyptians"  were  it  not  that  their 
despicable  conduct  degrades  themselves  and  their  families, 
promotes  meanness  and  deceit,  deepens  filthiness  and 
squalor,  renders  them  unfit  for  manly  occupations,  and 
thus  inevitably  extends  the  area  of  human  wretchedness. 
Charity,  then,  is  by  no  means  a  cure-all;  it  may  cover  sin, 
16 


242  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

but  it  does  not  heal  Society.  It  cannot  be  entirely  dis- 
pensed with;  but  neither  can  it  be  exclusively  relied  on. 
While  it  is  important  in  its  place,  that  place  is  neither  as 
large  nor  as  commanding  as  some  persons  suppose.  What 
is  immeasurably  of  more  importance  and  of  more  value, 
and  has  in  it  more  of  medicinal  virtue  to  purge  destitution, 
distress  and  despair  from  the  land,  is  Justice.  Just  mas- 
ters, just  treatment,  just  wages,  will  do  more  to  abate  suf- 
fering than  all  the  alms-giving  in  the  world.  Is  it  said  that 
charity  binds  up  the  broken  heart,  clothes  the  naked,  feeds 
the  hungry,  houses  the  homeless?  True;  but  we  reply, 
that  justice  keeps  hearts  from  being  broken,  and  saves  the 
body  from  hunger,  nakedness  and  exposure.  Why.  there 
is  more  real  charity  in  justice  than  there  is  charity  in 
charity  when  justice  is  ignored.  The  one  is  simply  a 
remedy,  and  a  bungling,  inadequate  remedy  at  that;  while 
the  other  is  a  preventive,  and  a  very  potent  and  efficacious 
preventive  it  is;  The  London  Quarterly  Review  (1872) 
says  that  the  sums  annually  distributed  in  the  me- 
tropolis of  England  among  the  poor  and  the  afflicted, 
or  that  are  expended  on  their  behalf,  would  suffice  to  ex- 
tinguish destitution  were  they  judiciously  employed. 
They  amount  to  the  enormous  total  of  seven  millions  and 
a  half  sterling;  enough,  assuming  that  one-eighth  of  the 
population,  or  400,000  persons,  are  wholly  dependent  on 
their  fellow-citizens,  to  allow  eighty-five  pounds  per  annum 
to  every  such  family  for  sustenance  and  education.  "  Yet," 
continues  the  same  authority,  "the  evils  against  which  all 
these  vast  resources  are  provided  or  can  be  directed,  go  on 
increasing  from  year  to  year.  In  this,  as  in  so  many  other 
matters,  we  endure  so  much  evil  and  do  so  little  good,  be- 
cause we  manage  so  badly,  and  are  so  constantly  sailing 
on  the  wrong  tack."  But  what,  from  this  showing,  must 
be  the  right  tack,  and  the  one  most  advantageous  to 
Society?  Justice!  We  cannot  conceive  of  any  other;  and 


CHARITY   AND   JUSTICE.  243 

no  other  leads  to  the  port  of  safety.  That  alone  can 
bring  capital  and  labor  together  on  terms  of  mutual  respect; 
that  alone  can  awaken  trust  and  confidence  where  sus- 
picion now  prevails;  that  alone  can  inspire  real  gratitude 
and  faithfulness,  and  that  alone  can  permanently  alleviate 
sorrow,  for  that  alone  lays  the  ax  at  its  root.  We,  there- 
fore, again  declare  our  firm  belief  that  those  persons  who 
expect  charity  to  assuage  and  exterminate  the  woes  of 
mankind  are  self-deceived  or  are  trying  to  deceive  others. 
Their  gospel  is  an  illusion  and  a  snare,  and  is  a  pithless, 
nerveless  thing;  and  at  best  is  only  a  weak  simulation  of 
that  other  gospel,  the  one  called  "  everlasting,"  which  has 
back  of  it  the  granite-like  principles  of  Sinai.  What  we 
supremely  need  is  a  revival  of  justice.  As  Carlyle  says: 

Justice,  Justice:  woe  betides  us  everywhere  when  for  this  reason 
or  for*  that,  we  fail  to  do  justice!  No  beneficence,  benevolence,  or 
other  virtuous  contribution  will  make  good  the  want.  And  in  what 
a  rate  of  terrible  geometrical  progression,  far  beyond  our  poor  com- 
putation, any  act  of  Injustice  once  done  by  us  grows;  rooting  itself 
ever  anew,  spreading  ever  anew,  like  a  banyan-tree, — blasting  all 
life  under  it,  for  it  is  a  poison-tree!  There  is  but  one  thing  needed 
for  the  world;  but  that  one  is  indispensable.  Justice,  Justice,  in  the 
name  of  Heaven;  give  us  Justice,  and  we  live;  give  us  only  counter- 
feits of  it,  or  succedanea  for  it,  and  we  die! 

To  all  of  which  we  respond,  amen  and  amen! 

Auerbach  in  one  of  his  novels  relates  the  story  of  a 
lost  soul.  He  represents  a  woman  in  Perdition,  who 
craves  from  St.  Peter  permission  to  revisit  her  former 
haunts  on  earth  that  she  may  see  her  lover  for  a  few 
moments,  and  have  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing  his 
passionate  sorrow  for  her  death.  Peter  urges  her  not  to 
insist  on  her  request;  but  she  persists  in  her  petition,  and 
promises  if  it  is  granted,  henceforward  to  accept  uncom- 
plainingly her  doom.  She  receives  her  liberty,  hastens  to 
earth,  and  finds  that  her  Paul  is  comforting  himself  with 
the  love  of  another  woman.  The  poor  soul  is  overwhelmed 


244  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

with  an  anguish  unlike  anything  experienced  before;  she 
mutely  returns  to  her  place  in  Hell,  and  says  that  she 
is  now  content  to  endure  the  worst.  Peter  feels  deeply 
her  wretchedness  caused  by  the  sight  of  earthly  forget- 
fulness,  and  declaring  that  she  had  tasted  an  eternity  of 
misery  in  contemplating  for  a  moment  her  lover's  oblivion 
to  her  past  devotion,  he  announces  that  her  punishment  is 
complete  and  her  admission  into  heaven  gained.  This 
pathetic  invention  suggests  two  thoughts:  the  measureless 
capacity  of  human  nature  for  suffering;  and  the  overrul- 
ing providence  of  God  in  suffering  itself.  He  enables  the 
race  to  endure  it.  He  sanctifies  it,  and  when  it  has  not 
resulted  from  vicious  conduct,  He  sees  that  it  does  not 
lose  its  reward.  The  latter  of  these  two  thoughts  is  closely 
allied  to  the  subject  of  this  paper.  Buskin  tells  us  that 
the  marble  "which  men  have  been  cutting  into  slabs  for 
thousands  of  years  to  ornament  their  principal  buildings 
with,"  has  been  branded  by  "earth's  agonies," and  that  its 
" flaming  zone  and  purple  vein"  show  "signs  of  ancient 
torture."  Figure  this  of  what  pain  and  agony  may  do  for 
mankind,  if  not  invited  by  iniquity,  and  if  graciously 
softened  by  the  sweet  consciousness  of  Divine  sympathy. 
In  the  fires  the  heart  may  be  made  stronger,  the  principles 
firmer,  and  the  motives  purer.  This,  however,  is  only 
true  of  the  multitude  of  cases  implied  throughout  this  dis- 
cussion, where  calamities  overtake  the  virtuous,  and  where 
wretchedness  is  the  result  of  oppressions,  selfishness  and 
social  blunders.  Hence  it  is  that  religion  is  indispensable. 
It  is  this  that  ameliorates  many  hardships,  that  lightens 
many  burdens,  that  reconciles  men  to  many  losses,  and 
that,  to  some  extent,  counteracts  the  degrading  tendency 
of  extreme  privation.  Sad  indeed,  then,  must  be  the  day 
when  any  nation  thrusts  aside  its  healing  ministry. 
Lord  Macaulay  writes  as  truly  as  he  does  eloquently, 
when  he  says,  "to  discountenance  that  religion  which 


RELIGION   AXD   SUFFERING.  245 

has  done  so  much  to  promote  justice,  and  mercy, 
and  freedom,  and  arts  and  sciences,  and  good  govern- 
ment, and  domestic  happiness,  which  has  struck  off 
the  chains  of  the  slave,  which  has  mitigated  the 
horrors  of  war,  which  has  raised  women  from  playthings 
and  servants  into  companions  and  friends,  is  to  commit 
high  treason  against  humanity  and  civilization."  And 
yet  infidelity,  which  Webster  characterized  as  "low, 
ribald  and  vulgar,"  and  which  he  denounced  as  tending 
"to  destroy  the  very  foundation  and  framework  of  society," 
sneers  at  the  influence  of  Christianity  and  proposes  its 
overthrow  in  the  interest  of  happiness  and  progress*  To 
all  who  are  of  this  way  of  thinking  we  commend  the 
vigorous  protest  of  Victor  Hugo:  "When  Lazarus  comes 
to  believe  that  there  is  no  other  and  better  world  for  the 
redress  of  the  inequalities  of  this,  he  will  cease  to  lie  at  the 
rich  man's  gate;  he  will  force  his  way  into  the  rich  man's 
house."  To  them  also  we  commend  this  warning  from 
the  pen  of  a  recent  writer:  "Society  needs  the  back- 
ground of  the  Infinite  to  insure  its  stability,  and  the 
government  which  helps  men  to  regard  themselves  as  a 
clever  kind  of  beasts,  and  destined  to  perish  as  the  beasts 
do,  is  beating  down  the  barriers  of  its  own  safety,  and 
bringing  in  the  floods  of  its  own  destruction."  Were 
religion  overborne  and  extirpated,  not  only  would  the 
motives  which  now  impel  us  to  help  one  another  be  ef- 
faced, but  our  sufferings  would  be  actually  intensified 
and  multiplied  by  obscuring  every  reason  for  their  en- 
durance, and  quenching  every  hope  of  their  ultimate 
transformation  into  blessings.  Recall  these  lines  by  Char- 
lotte Bronte: 

I've  heard  of  heaven — I  would  believe: 

For  if  this  earth  indeed  be  all, 
Who  longest  lives  may  deepest  grieve; 

Most  blest,  whom  sorrows  soouest  call, 


246  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

Oh!  leaving  disappointment  here, 
Will  man  find  hope  on  yonder  coast? 

Hope  which  on  earth  shines  never  clear, 
And  oft  in  clouds  is  wholly  lost. 

****** 

If  so,  endure  my  weary  frame; 

And  when  thy  anguish  strikes  too  deep, 
And  when  all  troubled  burns  life's  flame, 

Think  of  the  quiet  final  sleep; 
Think  of  the  glorious  waking  hour, 

Which  will  not  dawn  on  grief  and  tears, 
But  on  a  ransomed  spirit's  power, 

Certain  and  free  from  mortal  fears. 

These  are  human  feelings  which  the  poetess  describes. 
We  need  the  great  faith  of  life  beyond  the  grave  "to 
make  us  brave,"  brave  to  endure  the  sufferings  and 
brave  to  antagonize  the  wrongs,  which  everywhere  trample 
beneath  their  feet  the  fairest  hopes,  the  purest  aspirations 
and  the  sweetest  joys. 

During  the  battle  of  Regillus,  as  the  poet  recounts,  the 
twin  brothers,  Castor  and  Pollux,  appeared  on  behalf  of 
the  Roman's,  and  wherever  they  moved  on  that  eventful 
day  victory  crowned  the  cause  they  had  espoused: 

So  like  they  were  no  mortal 

Might  one  from  other  know; 
White  as  snow  their  armor  was, 

Their  steeds  were  white  as  snow; 
Never  on  earthly  anvil 

Did  such  rare  armor  gleam, 
And  never  did  such  gallant  steeds 

Drink  of  an  earthly  stream. 

So,  likewise,  when  the  Roman  sailors  in  stress  of  storm 
beheld  two  luminous  flames  playing  about  the  masts  of 
their  ships,  they  called  them  Castor  and  Pollux,  and  re- 
garded them  as  the  harbingers  of  coming  calm.  Hence 
Horace  sang: 


HUMANITY'S  TWIN  BROTHERS.  247 

But  when  the  sons  of  Leda  shed 
Their  star-lamps  on  the  vessel's  head, 
The  storm-winds  cease,  the  troubled  spray 
Falls  from  the  rocks,  clouds  flee  away, 
And  on  the  bosom  of  the  deep 
In  peace  the  angry  billows  sleep. 

Can  it  be  that  humanity  has  no  twin  brothers  to  cheer 
it  as  it  strives  against  the  tyranny  of  might  and  the  tears 
of  misery?  Are  there  no  lights  to  guide  when  the  night 
is  dark  and  the  stars  are  quenched?  Fights  the  sufferer 
the  battle  alone,  plunges  he  through  tempestuous  seas, 
without  an  Omnipotent  hand  on  the  rudder  to  safely  make 
the  haven?  No;  the  race  has  not  been  so  abandoned  by  the 
merciful  Father.  He  has  sent  into  the  world  and  into  our 
hearts  the  great  twin  belief — PROVIDENCE  and  IMMORTAL- 
ITY— and  where  these  grand  truths  reign  supreme,  there 
the  warfare  is  not  without  its  victories,  nor  the  troubled 
voyage  without  its  beacons,  nor  Society  without  hope  of  a 
blissful  calm,  where  tribulations  shall  subside,  or  be  but  as 
the  gentle  ripples  on  an  inland  sea. 


V. 

THE  VICES  OF  SOCIETY. 

Truly,  lady,  I  am  tolerably  drunk: 

*  *    *    Drink's  a  god. 

How  else  did  that  old  doting  driveler 
Kratinos  foil  me,  match  rny  masterpiece 
The  "  Clouds"?  I  swallowed  cloud  distillment — dew 
Undimmed  by  any  grape  blush,  knit  my  brow 
And  gnawed  my  style  and  laughed  my  learnedest; 
While  he  worked  at  his  "willow-wicker-flask," 
Swigging  at  that  same  flask,  by  which  he  swore, 
Till,  sing  and  empty,  sing  and  fill  again, 
Somehow  result  was — what  it  should  not  be. 

*  *    *    Did  you  only  know 

What  happened!  Little  wonder  I  am  drunk. 
********** 

One  of  these  women  that  abound  in  Rome, 

Whose  needs  oblige  them  eke  out  one  poor  trade 

By  another  vtte  one;  her  ostensible  work 

Was  washing  clothes,  out  in  the  open  air, 

At  the  cistern  by  Citorio;  but  true  trade — 

Whispering  to  idlers  when  they  stopped  and  praised 

The  ankle  she  let  liberally  shine 

In  kneeling  at  the  slab  by  the  fountain  side. 

Violante,  now,  had  seen  this  woman  wash, 

Noticed  and  envied  her  propitious  shape, 

Tracked  her  home  to  her  house-top,  noted,  too, 

And  was  now  come  to  tempt  her  and  propose 

A  bargain  far  more  shameful  than  the  first 

Which  trafficked  her  virginity  away 

For  a  melon  and  three  pauls  at  twelve  years  old. 

— Robert  Browning. 

RUSKIX,  in  his  Ethics  of  the  Dust,  describes  a  wonder- 
ful valley  of  diamonds.     It  lies  high  up  among  the 
hills,  as  high  as  the  clouds,  and  is  often  full  of  them.    The 

348 


THE    VALLEY   OF    DIAMONDS.  249 

entrance  is  very  wide,  under  a  steep  rock,  and  leads  to  an 
uneven  road  with  thickets  of  bramble,  whose  blossoms  are 
silver  and  whose  clusters  are  rubies,  and  with  grapes  that 
taste  like  gall,  and  berries  that  stain  like  blood  growing  on 
either  side.  Then  the  grass  is  strewn  with  glittering  dust, 
and  the  trees  have  twisted  bows  as  though  they  were  in  pain; 
and  serpents,  which  have  fine  crimson  crests  and  which 
sing  enchantingly,  are  in  the  forests ;  and  human  beings 
who  venture  near  them  are  in  danger  of  taking  on  their 
nature  and  of  being  changed  into  their  likeness.  Fire-flies 
are  there  which  burn  as  real  sparks  do ;  and  a  labyrinth 
perplexes  and  involves  the  wanderer,  made  of  great  cliffs 
of  dead  gold  and  of  massy  ledges  of  ice,  which  often  fall 
thundering  down,  destroying  and  burying  all  who  unhap- 
pily are  in  their  desolating  pathway.  To  the  artist-critic 
this  is  a  vision  of  our  Mammon  age  ;  to  us  it  is  a  picture 
of  vice  with  its  attractions  and  perils.  Vice  like  a  huge 
valley,  lies  among  the  mountains  of  Society,  sometimes 
high  up  among  the  respectable  classes ;  and  frequently  it 
is  filled  with  hazy,  fleecy  notions  regarding  right  and 
wrong  which  betray  the  unsuspecting  to  their  ruin.  Al- 
lurements are  also  there.  It  is  gilded  and  lighted,  deco- 
rated and  beautified ;  but  the  juice  from  its  vines  is 
poisonous,  and  the  stains  from  its  Dead-sea  fruit  are 
ineffacable.  Drunkenness,  gambling  and  profligacy  are 
its  three  great  serpents,  which  assume  endless  forms  and 
appear  in  endless  broods,  and  which  transform  their 
victims  into  their  own  green  and  slimy  image.  Whoever 
enters  this  valley  finds  it  difficult  to  escape.  The  farther 
it  is  traversed  the  more  tortuous  and  cheerless  the  road 
becomes ;  and  accumulated  transgressions  rise  into  giant 
peaks,  blocking  the  avenues  to  freedom,  and  sometimes, 
toppling  with  their  own  weight,  crush  into  indistinguish- 
able death  the  misguided  wretches  who  have  sought 
unhallowed  pleasures. 


250  STUDIES   IX   SOCIA.L  LIFE. 

These  evils  the  Bible  uniformly  denounces,  and  seeks 
in  every  way  to  deliver  mankind  from  their  thraldom. 
"Woe  unto  them,"  exclaims  Isaiah,  "that  rise  up  early 
in  the  morning,  that  they  may  follow  strong  drink,  that 
continue  until  night  till  wine  inflame  them ! "  "  Woe 
unto  them  that  are  mighty  to  drink  wine,  and  men  of 
strength  to  mingle  strong  drink."  An  apostle  sums  up 
the  array  of  enemies  that  are  to  be  reprobated  in  these 
words  :  "The  works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest,  which  are 
these  :  Adultery,  fornication,  uncleanness,  lasciviousness, 
envyings,  murders,  drunkenness,  revelings,  and  such  like"; 
and  Peter  gives  a  final  touch  to  their  loathsomeness  when, 
referring  to  those  who  practice  them,  he  adds:  "They 
count  it  pleasure  to  riot  in  the  daytime ;  their  eyes  are  full 
of  adultery,  and  they  cannot  cease  from  sin.  When  they 
speak  great  swelling  words  of  vanity,  they  allure  through 
the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  through  much  wantonness  those 
that  .were  clean  escaped  from  them  who  live  in  error." 
It  is  happened  unto  them  according  to  the  true  proverb  : 
"The  dog  is  turned  to  his  own  vomit  again,  and  the  sow 
that  was  washed  to  her  wallowing  in  the  mire." 
Further,  the  same  writer  elsewhere  exposes  a  common  and 
fatal  error  by  which  thousands  are  deceived.  They  fret 
against  the  restraints  of  virtue,  and  avow  themselves 
anxious  to  enjoy  perfect  liberty.  But  mark  their  folly. 
They  merely  change  mastery.  The  restraints  of  whole- 
some law  they  cast  aside  only  to  become  servants,  slaves 
to  profligacy.  There  is  in  the  apostle's  language  a  world 
of  sarcasm,  scathing  rebuke,  and  holy  indignation. 
"They  promise  them" — those  to  whom  they  speak  and 
whom  they  would  seduce,  what  they  at  first  promised 
themselves — "liberty";  but  their  persuasive  representa- 
tions are  absurd  and  false,  for  "they  themselves  are  the 
slaves  of  corruption."  Very  few  persons  realize  the  ter- 
rible coercion  there  is  in  their  acts.  Lavalette  declares 


COERCION    OF   CONDUCT.  251 

that  the  history  of  human  passion  teaches  the  difficulty 
which  even  the  best  men  have  had  in  stopping  when  once 
they  had  set  out  on  the  road  to  ruin.  Once  evil  is  admit- 
ted into  the  sanctuary  of  the  soul,  it  requires  more  than  a 
whip  with  small  cords  to  drive  it  out.  Dr.  Johnson  said 
quaintly  but  wisely:  "  I  can  abstain;  I  cannot  be  mod- 
erate." He  evidently  felt  what  Coventry  Patmore  versifies 
in  the  lines: 

How  easy  to  keep  free  from  sin! 
How  hard  that  freedom  to  recall! 

For  dreadful  truth  it  is,  that  men 
Forget  the  heavens  from  which  they  fall. 

And  what  is  true  of  individuals  is  as  true  of  Society  as 
a  whole.  We  know  that  throughout  the  civilized  world 
the  question  is,  -How  can  Society  be  saved  from  its  vices? 
Having  obtained  rootage  in  its  soil,  developing  out  of  its 
very  existence,  they  have  spread  themselves  over  its  surface 
until  at  times  they  threaten  the  extirpation  of  virtue  and 
the  subversion  of  civil  government.  They  extend  in  all 
directions.  We  hear  of  their  prevalence  in  the  highest 
court  circles  of  Europe  and  among  the  most  fashionable 
coteries  of  America,  as  well  as  among  the  thoughtless, 
reckless  and  criminal  classes  of  both  continents.  They 
have  obtained  so  powerful  a  hold  on  all  communities, 
have  such  vast  money  interests  at  stake,  have  so  many  rep- 
utations at  their  mercy,  that  they  not  infrequently  defy 
justice,  and  ridicule  the  rebukes  of  the  press  and  the  pulpit 
alike.  In  other  words,  they  practically  obtain  mastery 
and  rule  with  a  rod  of  iron;  and,  doing  so  in  the  name  of 
personal  liberty,  they  succeed  in  blinding  officers  of  the 
law,  and  even  many  well  informed  people,  to  the  brutal 
bondage  and  measureless  suffering  which  they  entail. 

To  break  this  terrible  yoke,  these  deceptive,  destroy- 
ing, devilish  vices  must  be  exposed'  the  mask  must  be  torn 
from  their  hideous  features;  the  disguises  must  be  stripped 


252  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

from  their  festering,  putrid  bodies:  and  all  friends  of 
social  regeneration  must  be  made  to  realize  that  for  the 
sake  of  these  fierce  and  terrible  Harpies,  living  in  an 
atmosphere  of  filth  and  stench,  and  contaminating,  befoul- 
ing and  deforming  everything  and  every  one  they  touch, 
national  prosperity  is  continually  jeopardized,  and  human 
sufferings  are  indefinitely  multiplied;  and  that  these  bitter 
results  never  can  be  averted  until  their  monstrous  causes 
are  exterminated. 

"We  have  incidentally  referred  to  their  prevalence  in 
our  times;  but  this  is  a  matter  of  sufficient  gravity  to  call 
for  more  extended  notice.  Rhetorical  extravagance  is 
so  common  that  any  extraordinary  statement  has  to  be 
presented  with  due  regard  for  facts  and  figures,  if  it 
would  succeed  in  making  an  impression  favorable  to 
its  truthfulness  on  the  public  mind.  The  habit  of 
indulging  in  assertions  without  any  adequate  effort  to 
avoid  exaggeration,  or  to  array  in  their  support  suffi- 
cient proof,  has  indisposed  a  large  number  of  persons 
to  believe  what  is  entirely  credible  and  almost  indisputa- 
ble. Thus  when  we  refer  to  licentiousness  in  such  terms 
as  we  have  already  employed,  it  is  not  unnatural  that  some 
excellent  people  should  look  upon  us  as  an  inexcusable 
slanderer  of  this  generation.  Such,  however,  is  not  the 
case.  The  trouble  is,  these  obstinately  optimistic  critics 
do  not  study  the  situation;  and  possibly  their  position  in 
life  preserves  them  from  contact  with  the  dissoluteness  of 
the  age;  and  hence  they  suppose  that  they  who  paint  in 
gloomy  colors  its  dissipations  are  actuated  by  a  fanatical 
spirit.  Were  they  to  look  at  things  just  as  they  are,  and 
do  so  long  enough,  their  opinion  would  undergo  a  change. 
We,  therefore,  feel  that  they  need  to  have  presented  to 
them  a  thoroughly  sustained  conception  of  our  moral 
condition,  that  like  good  sailors,  they  may  take  their  bear- 
ings before  they  commit  themselves  to  any  final  and 


PROPORTIONS   OF  VICE.  253 

nite  course  of  action.  This  is  all  the  more  important  as 
there  are  some  writers  who  incline  to  extremer  views  than 
we  are  prepared  to  advocate,  and  we  have  no  desire  to 
be  identified  with  them.  From  various  sources  we  hear 
the  cry,  that  the  people  were  never  as  immoral  as  now,  and 
that  we  are  inevitably  going -from  bad  to  worse;  and  when 
any  one  talks  or  writes  on  the  real  extent  of  vice  he  is  in 
danger  of  being  classed  with  this  unconvertible  pessi- 
mistic party.  But  this  is  not  our  attitude.  We  believe  in 
moral  progress;  and  if  the  race  is  no  purer  and  holier  be- 
cause of  the  ministry  of  Christ,  we  confess  that  we  see  no 
real  cause  for  his  advent,  and  no  particular  advantages  pro- 
ceeding from  it,  at  least  as  far  as  this  world  is  concerned. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  poor  comment  on  the  labors  of  our  tem- 
perance societies  for  one  hundred  years  to  declare  that 
drunkenness  and  every  kind  of  villainy  are  on  the  in- 
crease. If  this  is  all  we  have  to  chronicle,  if  the  earnest 
workers  have  wrought  in  vain,  why  it  hardly  seems  worth 
while  to  keep  up  the  farcical  conflict.  We  admit  that  we 
may  be  passing  through  one  of  those  retrogressive  move- 
ments, of  which  we  wrote  when  discussing  "Progress,"' 
which  ultimately  will  promote  a  fresh  and  further  ad- 
vance in  the  right  direction.  We  do  not,  however,  care 
to  argue  this  point,  nor  is  it  necessary  for  us  to  institute  a 
fresh  comparison  between  the  moral  obliquity  of  other 
generations  and  our  own.  What  we  especially  desire  to 
point  out,  is  the  exact — as  far  as  ascertainable — propor- 
tions of  vice,  and  the  number  of  its  votaries  and  victims. 
In  doing  this,  we  fear  the  results  will  bring  us  very  close 
to  Pessimism;  but  assuredly  not  so  close  as  to  extinguish 
the  hope  we  cherish  in  the  ultimate  emancipation  of 
the  race  from  unhallowed  passions  and  soul-destroying 
pleasures. 

Let  us  begin  with  intemperance,  though  an  exhibit  of 
its    bloated,    fiery   features   will   necessarily   reveal   other 


254  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

horrid,  blotched  and  pimpled  faces.  The  following  par- 
liamentary paper  recently  published  contains  the  sub- 
stance of  reports  from  her  majesty's  diplomatic  agents  on 
the  continent  regarding  the  consumptions  of  intoxicants 
in  the  various  countries  to  which  they  are  accredited. 
AVe  give  an  extract  from  the  London  Times,  as  reprinted 
in  the  Chicago  Tribune  : 

Consul-General  Oppeuheimer  estimates,  with  regard  to  Ger- 
many, that  in  the  distilleries  of  the  Empire  in  1875  and  1876  at  least 
200,000,000  liters  of  pure  alcohol  were  produced  for  mere  consump- 
tion— or,  in  round  numbers,  six  litres  per  head  of  the  population. 
Reckoning  the  male  population  over  fifteen  years  of  age  at  30  per 
cent  this  would  give  a  yearly  consumption  of  twenty  litres  of  pure 
alcohol  per  head,  or  fifty  litres  of  ordinary  schnapps.  By  the  year 
1880  the  quantity  had  increased  to  seventy-one  litres  yearly  per  head. 
The  consumption  of  spirits  in  North  Germany  is  very  great;  and  out 
of  a  yearly  average  of  4,450  suicides  in  Prussia  for  five  years,  508 
have  been  due  to  dipsomania  and  delirium  tremens.  The  percentage 
of  suicides  among  males  due  to  alcohol  was  13.40,  whereas  among 
females  it  was  only  2.  With  regard  to  fatal  accidents  also  a  large 
number  of  them  were  attributable  to  drunkenness.  Similar  statistics 
were  furnished  in  connection  with  the  lunatic  asylums.  Taking 
3,106  cases  yearly  treated  in  the  general  hospitals  for  dipsomania, 
690  cases  of  delirium  tremens  in  the  lunatic  asylums,  597  private 
dipsomaniacs,  508  suicides,  and  311  drunkards  accidentally  killed, 
there  is  a  total  of  5,212  cases  yearly  of  alcoholism  in  a  fatal  form. 
The  Prussian  States  alone  showed  1,921  men  and  95  women  treated 
yearly  for  delirium  tremens.  It  appears  that  seven-tenths  of  those 
suffering  from  alcohol  were  in  the  prime  of  life — that  is,  between 
twenty  and  fifty  years  of  age, 

In  Sweden  and  Norway  the  consumption  of  spirits  has  been  de- 
clining for  some  years  past,  but  in  Denmark  the  evil  of  spirit-drink- 
ing has  reached  a  terrible  pitch.  The  number  of  drunkards  who 
have  committed  suicide  has  risen  in  thirty  years  from  one-seventh  to 
one-third;  while,  among  the  arrests,  56  per  cent  were  cases  of  drunk- 
enness, and  adding  to  these  18  per  cent  among  prisoners  for  other 
offenses,  there  is  a  grand  total  of  74  per  cent,  or  three-fourths  of  all 
those  taken  into  custody,  for  crimes  committed  under  the  influence 
of  drink. 


THE   HARDY  SWISS.  255 

In  Holland  the  number  of  houses  for  the  sale  of  drink  was  not 
less  than  45,000  in  1878,  so  that  in  a  population  of  4,000,000  there  was 
a  drink  shop  for  every  ninety  inhabitants,  including  women  and 
children .  But,  owing  to  the  exertions  of  a  portion  of  the  community 
the  legislature  passed  a  restrictive  law  in  1881,  with  the  result  that 
in  the  course  of  one  year  the  drink  shops  decreased  from  45,000  to 
33,000. 

Belgium  affords  incontestably  the  worst  statistics  in  regard  to  the 
consumption  of  alcoholic  liquors .  In  less  than  half  a  century  the  use 
of  spiritous  liquors  has  more  than  trebled  itself  in  that  country,  while 
the  population  has  only  advanced  from  3,500,000  to  5,500,000.  The 
use  of  spirits  increased  66  per  cent  between  1851  and  1881,  and  of 
beer  increased  during  the  same  period  15.75  per  cent.  The  consump- 
tion of  spirits,  wine  and  beer  for  1881  amounted  in  value  to  475,000,- 
000  francs.  Although  the  country  is  so  small,  it  contained  in  1880  no 
fewer  than  125,000  places  devoted  to  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors. 
There  was  a  public  house  on  the  average  for  every  twelve  or  thirteen 
grown  up  males.  The  suicides  rose  from  fifty- four  per  1,000,000  in- 
habitants in  1848  to  eighty  in  1880.  The  lunatics  advanced  from  730 
per  1,000,000  inhabitants  in  1846  to  1,470  in  1881.  The  inspector 
general  of  Belgian  prisons  reports  that  four-fifths  of  the  crime  and 
social  misery  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  been  directly 
attributable  to  intemperance. 

In  France  the  sad  effects  of  drunkenness  once  witnessed  have 
been  considerably  lessened  by  the  passing  of  a  salutary  act.  In  1875 
the  number  punished  for  open  drunkenness  was  98,000  but  by  1880 
they  had  fallen  to  60,000. 

Switzerland  exhibits  an  unsatisfactory  increase  in  the  drink  traffic. 
Between  1870  and  1880  the  population  advanced  6.5  percent,  but  the 
public  houses  increased  by  as  much  as  22  per  cent.  Austria  furnishes 
a  similar  condition  of  things.  In  1880  there'  were  in  Vienna  alone, 
1,624  drink  houses,  and  6,103  persons  were  in  that  year  arrested  for 
being  drunk, 

The  writer  of  this  article  just  quoted  brings  to  our 
notice  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  Swiss;  and  another 
sends  to  London  a  more  fearful  picture  of  intemperance 
among  the  hardy  sons  of  the  lakes  and  hills  than  the  first 
had  space  to  paint. 

However  temperate,  frugal  and  industrious  the  Switzers  may 
once  have  been,  they  are  now  fast  degenerating  into  a  race  of  drunk- 


256  STFDTES   1ST   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

ards.  The  subject  is  being  considered  by  the  federal  government 
with  a  view  to  securing  restrictive  legislation  by  the  national  assem- 
bly. It  appears  that  this  sudden  and  rapid  increase  of  intemperance 
among  the  Swiss  people  only  dates  back  to  1874.  Prior  to  that  year 
the  Cantons  possessed  power  to  regulate  the  traffic  in  drink.  Then 
licenses  were  high  and  minute  restrictive  regulations  were  placed 
upon  the  traffic.  No  public  house  for  the  sale  of  liquor  could  be 
opened  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  church,  school  or  public  institution 
of  any  kind.  All  such  places  had  to  be  closed  the  greater  part  of 
every  Sunday,  and  at  a  certain  hour  each  evening,  and  penalties  were 
provided  against  furnishing  drinks  to  minors  or  permitting  them  to 
frequent  places  where  liquor  was  exposed  for  sale.  By  an  amend- 
ment to  the  federal  constitution  all  this  was  changed,  and  the  right  to 
sell  alcoholic  beverages  was  made  as  free  as  their  right  to  sell  milk  or 
any  article  of  provision.  As  a  result,  drinking  houses  multiplied, 
and  the  correspondent  shows  that  while  the  population  only  increased 
six  per  cent  in  a  given  time,  the  taverns  increased  twenty-two  per 
cent.  He  says,  taking  the  whole  country  into  account,  there  is  one 
tavern  to  every  130  inhabitants,  and  that,  deducting  the  women  and 
children  and  the  sick,  there  is  one  drinking  place  to  every  thirty  per- 
sons. In  Geneva,  and  many  other  towns,  grocers  and  confectioners 
vend  wine  and  spirits,  and  in  this  manner  the  means  of  spreading  in- 
temperance are  multiplied.  A  bottle  of  common  brandy,  he  says, 
costs  about  twenty  cents,  and  judging  from  the  effects  produced,  the 
liquor  must  be  of  the  vilest  character. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  from  these  extracts  that 
drinking  in  Europe  is  not  everywhere  on  the  increase,  and 
that  where  it  had  gained  headway  there  is  a  local  reason, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Swiss.  Yet  we  must  all  admit  the 
picture  is  black  enough.  Our  own  country  is  as  bad  as  the 
others  in  its  disgusting  thirst,  as  the  appended  summary 
from  the  Inter-Ocean,  Chicago,  proves: 

In  1881  there  was  distilled  in  the  United  States  117,728,150  gal- 
lons— over  two  and  one-third  gallons  of  brandy,  gin  and  whisky  for 
every  man,  woman  and  child,  and  there  were  brewed  13,347,110 
barrels,  or  413,760.410  gallons  of  beer — over  eight  gallons  to  every 
one  of  the  population.  And  the  customs  duties  for  the  year  ending 
June  30,  1881,  on  imported  spirits  amounted  to  $6,469,643.  In  addi- 
tion, there  were  the  native  wines  and  also  the  unlimited  quantities  of 


DRIXKIXG   IX  AMERICA.  257 

whisky  and  beer  upon  which  the  government  had  not  been  able  to 
collect  revenue.  There  were  in  July,  1881,  4,112  wholesale  dealers  in 
distilled  liquors  and  170,640  retail  dealers,  and  in  1880,  2,065  whole- 
sale dealers  in  fermented  liquors,  and  one  retail  dealer  to  every  270 
souls.  In  the  first  district  of  Illinois — Cook,  Du  Page  and  Lake 
counties — there  was  one  dealer  to  every  130  people.  But  to  the 
saloons  paying  tribute  to  the  government  there  must  be  added  the 
unlicensed  places  numerous  in  every  city.  Leaving  out  the  women 
and  children  and  those  who  do  not  drink,  the  average  to  each  saloon 
in  Chicago  is  twenty-five  customers,  who  drink  beyond  all  modera- 
tion. On  this  basis  there  are  in  the  country  4,000,000  of  hopeless 
drunkards,  and  in  Chicago  and  suburbs  140,000. 

This  bird's-eye  view  of  this  abomination  in  the  United 
States  was  written  for  the  special  benefit  of  Chicago  citi- 
zens, and  hence  the  direct  allusion  to  that  city.  Some- 
how we  usually  regard  the  metropolis  of  the  West  as  the 
special  center  of  all  the  vices.  Unquestionably  they  do 
thrive  wonderfully  there;  but  it  is  not  so  clear  that  they 
are  much  more  vigorous  in  that  community  than  else- 
Avhere.  Take,  for  example,  the  moral,  or  rather  the 
immoral,  condition  of  Boston,  the  city  of  our  special  love 
and  of  our  sweetest  memories,  and  the  community  which 
in  Europe  is  credited  with  having  everything  worth  having 
in  American  civilization.  We  quote  from  that  very  able 
journal,  The  Springfield  Republican: 

The  Boston  papers  have  suddenly  woke  up  to  the  fact  that  Bos- 
ton is  a  city  of  unlimited  license  for  at  least  three  social  evils — drunk- 
enness, licentiousness  and  gambling.  The  Boston  Record,  lively  and 
cleanly,  is  exposing  these  things  excellently,  and  it  is  an  untilled  field. 
It  shows  the  streets  filled  with  saloons,  several  of  whose  keepers  sit  in 
the  board  of  aldermen.  It  exposes  the  way  convictions  for  illegal 
selling,  if  by  any  chance  such  are  procured  in  the  municipal  court, 
are  appealed  to  the  superior  court,  and  hung  up  never  to  be  heard  of 
again  or  fail  with  juries.  Its  reporters  are  exposing  the  gambling 
chambers,  thronged  with  patrons,  close  by  the  city  hall  and  the  most 
crowded  streets. 

This  is  only  half  the  story.  The  immunity  from  penalty  enjoyed 
by  these  vices  has  demoralized — that  is  just  the  word,  lowered  the 
17 


258  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

morals — of  the  people,  and  there  is  an  alarming  tendency  to  all  kinds 
of  crime.  Persons  and  property  are  insecure.  Men  are  unsafe  in  the 
streets  at  night,  merchants  and  marketmen  have  goods  stolen  from 
their  places  of  business;  murder  is  rife.  Business  men  say  it  does  no 
good  to  apply  to  the  police,  that  they  do  nothing  when  appealed  to. 
The  police  commissioners  seem  to  be  a  feeble  body  with  no  iron  in  the 
blood,  such  as  is  necessary  to  govern  a  great  city.  The  trouble  is 
that  the  criminal  class,  including  the  liquor  sellers,  govern  the  city 
through  its  city  council,  and  all  the  powers  that  be  bow  to  these 
unclean  idols. 

It  may  be  '''the  bias  of  habitation,"  as  Herbert  Spencer 
would  say,  that  leads  us  to  question  the  propriety  of  the 
good  editor  of  the  Republican  representing  Boston  as  de- 
generating toward  the  low  level  of  Chicago;  when  from  all 
the  recited  facts  Boston  would  seem  to  have  reached  a 
depth  of  depravity  than  which  there  is  hardly  conceivable 
one  deeper.  There  does  not  seem  to  be  much  to  choose 
between  them;  but  then  the  Metropolis  of  the  West  may 
fairly  plead  several  extenuating  circumstances.  She  is 
young,  and  hence  inclined  to  be  frivolous  and  reckless;  she 
has  as  yet  no  really  homogeneous  population,  and  many 
who  are  prominent  in  her  citizenship,  unhappily  were 
reared  in  that  once  glorious  New  England,  now  being  traded 
for  dollars  into  the  hands  of  a  foreign  labor  class ;  and 
where  they  were  early  inducted  into  those  habits  which  are 
rendering  their  birthplace  now  so  conspicuously  unsavory. 
Oh,  New  England!  Naturally  and  historically  our  head 
of  gold  ;  for  once  the  West  was  but  the  feet  of  iron  and 
of  clay,  with  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  for  the  breasts 
and  arms  of  silver  in  the  great  national  image,  how  art 
thou  changed!  Alas!  "how  is  the  gold  become  dim! 
how  is  the  most  fine  gold  changed  ! "  Dimmed  and  changed 
it  is  when  the  native-born  population  is  driven  into  the 
great  Northwest,  and  beyond  the  "  Rockies,"  that  cheap 
labor  may  enrich  a  few  nabobs,  and  that  foreigners,  men 
of  a  different  faith  as  of  a  different  lineage,  may  by  corrup- 


DRINKING   CHICAGO.  259 

tion  attain  those  civic  honors  which  once  were  worthily 
worn  by  unbribed  puritans.  As  to  Chicago,  all  that  can 
be  said  at  present  is  that  she  is  far  from  being  free  of 
earthy  elements  ;  but  hopes  through  some  divine  alchemy 
— like  the  human  alchemy  of  old,  which  changed,  or  pro- 
fessed to  change,  common  metals  into  gold  and  scorched 
and  dried  up  the  clay — that  the  baser  elements  of  her  be- 
ing may  be  transmuted  into  those  more  precious  which 
alone  can  render  her  worthy  of  her  commanding  position 
and  future  empire.  Certainly,  unless  the  alchemy  is 
divine  the  transmutation  process  will  drag  wearily  through 
the  lives  of  several  generations,  especially  if  the  following 
statistics  are  to  be  credited.  They  were  carefully  com- 
piled in  1883  by  some  of  our  leading  journals.  This  is  part 
of  a  report  furnished  by  the  Tribune: 

There  are  3,799  saloons  in  Chicago  licensed  for  the  sale  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors.  The  number  of  unlicensed  places  cannot  be  accurately 
estimated,  but  ex-officials  of  the  city  and  others,  whose  calculations 
are  based  on  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  facts,  have  estimated 
that  there  is  a  total  of  at  least  6,000  places  in  the  city  where  liquor  is 
sold  and  drank.  There  were  twenty-eight  police  prosecutions  last 
year  for  the  sale  of  liquor  without  a  license,  but  necessarily  this  can 
only  represent  a  very  small  fraction  of  those  engaged  in  the  illegal 
trade.  In  numerous  groceries,  restaurants  and  saloons  the  law  is  suc- 
cessfully evaded.  It  is  also  a  well-known  fact  that  in  many  of  the 
low  dives  with  which  the  city  abounds,  gambling-houses,  houses  of 
prostitution,  etc.,  liquor  is  sold  and  drank  without  any  pretense  of 
legal  authority.  There  are  some  300  or  more  drug-stores  where  liquor 
is  sold  in  bottle  and  for  medicinal  purposes,  but  leaving  these  out  of 
the  question  it  may  be  fairly  estimated  that  there  are  5,000  liquor- 
shops  in  the  city.  Estimating  the  population  at  600,000,  this  gives 
one  liquor  shop  to  every  120  inhabitants.* 

Notice  here  the  allusion  to  low  bagnios  and  gambling 
houses,  showing  that  we  have  not  only  to  contend  with 


*These  are  not  the  latest  statistics;  but  those  of  a  more  recent  date  are 
not  materially  different. 


260  STUDIES  1ST   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

drunkenness,  but  also  with  its  sister,  prostitution,  and 
with  the  passion  for  games  of  chance.  In  addition  to  this 
we  have  the  following,  copied  from  the  St.  Louis  Republican 
and  printed  in  the  Inter  Ocean : 

There  are  about  1,800  drinking  saloons  in  the  city  of  St  Louis  ; 
Chicago  has  4,000 — more  than  double  the  number  here.  In  the 
state  of  Missouri  there  are  3,360  dramshops,  132  wine  and  beer 
saloons,  35  drug  stores  which  retail  liquor  under  dramshop  licenses, 
and  74  groceries  which  retail  under  dramshop  licenses — making  a 
total  of  3,601.  (The  commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  reports 
6,950.  There  must  be  some  who  "get  away"  from  the  state  authori- 
ties.) There  are  more  drinking  places  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  there- 
fore, than  in  the  state  of  Missouri.  Again:  The  governor  of  Ohio 
states  in  his  recent  message  that  there  are  more  than  16,000  retail 
drinking  places  in  that  state,  and  the  traffic  "probably  exceeds  $70,- 
000,000  annually."  Ohio,  with  one-third  more  population  than  Mis- 
souri, manages  to  support  more  than  four  times  as  many  saloons. 
Certainly,  in  view  of  these  comparisons,  we  may  claim  for  our  peo- 
ple the  merit  of  at  least  equal  sobriety  and  moderation  with  those 
northern  populations  which  are  accustomed  to  make  a  parade  of 
their  virtues.  There  are  eighteen  counties  in  Missouri — Adair, 
Clarke,  Clay,  De  Kalb,  Dent,  Douglas,  Grundy,  Harrison,  Hickory, 
Mercer,  Miller,  Ozark,  Polk,  Putnam,  Rails,  Schuyler,  Scotland, 
and  Shelby — which  report  no  dramshops  and  no  wine  and  beer  sa- 
loons. 

This  is  certainly  a  remarkable  showing,  and  while  the 
contrasts  reveal  some  light,  the  darkness  round  Chicago 
and  Ohio  is  thick  enough  to  be  felt.  If  we  would  know 
whether  this  vice  extends  in  America  only  to  the  cultured 
and  refined,  or  is  limited  to  the  off  scouring  of  humanity, 
let  us  hear  from  Miss  Carrie  Moffit  who  thus  writes  of  those 
with  whom  she  had  to  deal  when  conducting  the  Eehoboth 
mission  for  dissipated  women: 

We  have  had  all  classes  and  nearly  all  conditions  of  women. 
Those  reared  in  pleasant  homes,  in  refinement  and  luxury  and  well 
educated,  as  well  as  those  from  the  lower  walks  of  life.  We  have 
had  the  daughter  of  a  national  bank  president,  another  of  a  railroad 
official,  the  daughter  of  an  aristocratic  family  in  the  State  of  New 


THE   VICTIMS   OF  VICE.  261 

York,  the  daughter  of  a  highly  respected  family  in  Iowa,  also  one 
from  a  good  family  in  Michigan,  and  many  others  of  equal  interest. 
Most  of  the  above  named  are  living  earnest  Christian  lives. 

And,  in  addition,  let  us  hear  from  Colonel  Bain,  who 
in  a  pungent  sentence  or  two  shows  that  strong  drink  is 
no  respecter  of  persons.  He  says: 

Down  in  Kentucky,  some  time  ago,  young  Harry  Clay,  the  son 
of  our  great  southern  statesman,  lay  bleeding  to  death  from  a  wound 
inflicted  upon  him  in  a  drunken  brawl  by  a  liquor  seller.  In  the 
same  city,  at  the  same  time,  the  grandson  of  John  J.  Crittenden,  one 
of  the  brightest  men  who  ever  graced  the  United  States  Senate,  was 
also  dying  from  injuries  received  while  drunk.  And  at  the  same 
hour,  the  great-grandson  of  Patrick  Henry  was  in  a  prison  cell, 
brought  there  by  drink.  Look  at  those  great  men,  way  off  there  on 
the  summit  of  fame,  and  then  look  at  their  offspring,  disgraced  by 
drunkenness . 

Personally  we  have  known  female  votaries  of  Bacchus, 
and  have  been  called  to  see  them  when  they  had  reached 
the  maudlin  stage  of  drunkenness,  and  particularly  desired 
religious  conversation.  They  generally  were  disgustingly 
pious  at  such  times.  Some  of  these  women  moved  in 
what  is  known  as  "  the  best  circles."  Thus,  then,  not  only 
are  the  victims  of  this  vice  to  be  found  among  the  so- 
cially degraded  and  among  men,  but  likewise  among  those 
who  rank  as  ladies  and  gentlemen.  But  in  justice  to 
our  women  let  it  be  said  that  they  are  freer  from  this 
terrible  habit  than  their  sisters  of  other  lands.  Yet  we 
fear  from  the*  reports  of  physicians  that  many  of  them 
are  given  to  the  use  of  opium  in  some  of  its  forms;  and  in 
various  quarters  it  is  hinted  that  liquor  is  abandoned 
merely  in  deference  to  public  opinion,  while  secretly  nox- 
ious drugs  are  substituted  in  its  place.  This  may  be  the 
case,  and  if  it  is  we  are  indeed  stricken  with  a  curse. 
Bad  enough  to  be  so  widely  governed  by  Alcohol,  with- 
out the  -baser  degradation  of  servitude  to  the  bane 
of  Asiatic  people.  Assuredly  we  are  in  a  deplorable 


262  STUDIES  IX  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

plight.  After  many  changes  for  the  better,  after  many 
temperance  victories,  still  we  are  enslaved.  No  rank 
seems  to  enjoy  entire  immunity  from  the  peril.  Lords  and 
gentlemen,  "right  reverends  and  wrong  reverends  of  every 
degree,"  especially  the  wrong  reverends,  magistrates,  law- 
yers, merchants,  young  and  old,  ignorant  and  cultured, 
the  rich  and  poor,  in  nearly  all  countries  and  under  various 
forms  of  civilization,  are  more  or  less  in  bondage  to  the 
drinking  habit.  Its  captives  are  numbered  by  the  million, 
and  on  its  domains  the  sun  never  sets;  or  rather  never  rises; 
for  they  are  so  vast,  and  horrible,  that  they  seem  to  com- 
prise an  empire  of  limitless  darkness.  It  can  claim  the 
allegiance  of  many  nations,  tongues  and  peoples;  and 
though  no  monarch  is  as  merciless,  brutal  and  fiendish, 
sparing  its  friends  less  than  its  enemies,  neither  is  any  more 
faithfully  served,  nor  served  with  so  marked  a  disregard 
for  reputation,  comfort  and  prosperity. 

We  have  observed  in  tracing  the  magnitude  of  intem- 
perance the  appearance,  as  though  in  intimate  fellowship, 
of  the  criminal  practices  of  the  Brothel  and  the  Gambling 
Hell.  They  form  a  sisterhood  of  evils,  a  trinity  of  Hell. 
But  in  our  opinion  were  the  first  of  the  vile  crew  de- 
stroyed, the  others  would  decline  in  vigor  and  attractive- 
ness, and,  possibly,  would  disappear  altogether.  But  of 
this  we  may  be  confident,  that  so  long  as  men  and  women 
become  sots,  the  infamous  resorts  for  the  indulgence  of 
inordinate  desires  will  flourish.  The  measure,  therefore,  of 
the  drinking  habit  may  almost  invariably  be  taken  as  the 
measure  of  existing  licentiousness;  consequently,  we  might 
leave  you  to  infer  from  what  we  have  said  regarding  the 
extent  of  the  former  what  are  the  present  limits  of  the 
latter.  But  while  this  course  might  be  satisfactory  to 
many,  there  are  those  who  need  to  be  reminded  of  the 
threatening  prevalence  of  harlotry  and  gambling  that 
they  may  be  impelled  to  undertake  something  to  check 


VICE   IX   LOXDOX.  263 

their  growth,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  recalling  some 
details  of  these  sores  in  the  body  politic.  We  shall  be 
as  brief  as  possible  ;  for  we  have  no  taste  for  sewage,  and 
no  pleasure  in  lingering  near  the  cesspools  of  fallen 
humanity.  James  Greenwood,  in  1869,  startled  the  world 
by  declaring  that  in  London  there  were  8,600  prostitutes, 
and  yet  later  writers  have  added  largely  to  this  figure.  It 
is  probable  that  no  one  can  give  more  than  a  proximate 
idea  of  its  real  total  in  any  of  our  cities.  Ever  must  it 
be  largely  guess-work;  for  where  there  are  so  many  reasons 
for  concealment  as  there  are  when  sexual  relations  are  law- 
less, multitudes  of  cases  will  be  kept  from  the  public  e}Te. 
The  labors,  therefore,  of  statisticians,  however  valuable, 
at  best  can  only  afford  us  a  comparative  estimate  of  what 
is  significantly  termed  ''the  social  evil."  Indeed,  we  have 
sometimes  thought  that  the  appalling  revelations  made  by 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  last  July,  give  us  a  clearer  idea  of 
its  virulence  and  prevalence  than  any  array  of  numbers 
can;  for  the  sickening  accounts  published  by  that  journal 
indicate  how  ruthless  and  devilish  the  baser  passions  are  ; 
and  by  the  prices  paid  for  victims, and  the  vile  means  used  for 
their  entanglement,  how  tyrannical  and  merciless  is  lust. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  reproduce  these  articles,  still  a  brief 
extract  or  two  may  serve  to  recall  the  entire  narrative;  and 
if  thought  on  for  a  few  moments  may  put  parents  and 
daughters  alike  on  their  guard.  The  Gazette  gives  promi- 
nence to  the  following : 

If  asked  to  describe,  by  far  the  most  ruinous  crime  of  London 
vice,  we  would  point,  not  to  the  fashionable  West  End  brothels,  nor 
to  the  systematic  procuration  of  girls  and  women,  but  to  the  great 
drapery  and  millinery  establishments  of  London,  in  which  every  year 
hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  young  women  are  ruined.  It  is  pitiful 
to  think  of  the  number  of  young  girls,  tenderly  trained  and  carefully 
educated  in  schools  in  country  villages,  who  come  to  London  only 
to  find  the  business,  on  which  their  parents  built  high  hopes,  but 
little  better  than  an  open  doorway  to  the  path  leading  to  Hell*  It  is 


204  STUDIES  IX  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

stated  that  at  a  certain  notorious  theater  no  girl  ever  kept  her  virtue 
more  than  three  months.  At  an  equally  notorious  business  house  at 
the  West  End  it  is  rare  to  find  a  girl  who  has  retained  her  virtue 
more  than  six  months.  The  head  of  a  great  London  emporium 
regards  the  women  in  his  employ  much  in  the  same  aspect  that  the 
Sultan  of  Turkey  regards  the  inmates  of  his  seraglio,  the  master 
selecting  the  prettiest  girls  and  the  underlings  following  his  example. 
Many  emporiums  are  little  better  than  horrible  ante-chambers  of 
brothels.  The  system  is  creeping  into  scores  of  London  establish- 
ments for  the  female  employes  to  eke  out  their  scanty  wages  in  pros- 
titution. 
************ 

London  is  the  greatest  market  for  human  flesh  in  the  world.  A 
great  colony  of  importers  and  traders  in  girls  exists  in  the  French 
quarter,  where  it  is  the  all-absorbing  idea  of  each  wretch  to  get  a  girl, 
body  and  soul,  into  his  possession  whom  he  can  drive  into  the  streets 
to  ply  her  vocation  while  he  lives  upon  the  proceeds  of  her  prostitu- 
tion. Count  von  Muuster,  German  Ambassador  to  London,  in  re- 
porting to  Berlin  dwells  horrified  upon  the  discovery  that  there  is  an 
organized  trade  in  German  girls  between  the  principal  cities  and 
London. 
********** 

Under  the  headline,  "An  interview  with  an  Ex-Slave  Trader"  the 

following  is  given:  "John  S ,  a  gray-haired  Belgian  of  noble 

appearance,  who  has  just  served  six  years  in  a  prison  in  Belgium, 
states  that  a  score  of  English  girls  arc  exported  to  Belgium  and  the 
north  of  France  monthly  for  immoral  purposes.  Two-thirds  of  these 
he  asserts,  think  that  they  are  going  to  situations,  and  under  this 
mistaken  idea  are  lured  to  their  ruin.  The  exporter  is  paid  so  much 
a  head  if  the  girls  are  in  a  healthy  state,  and  nothing  if  diseased. 
The  average  price  paid  is  £10  per  head.  The  ages  of  girls  range 
from  eight  to  thirteen  years.  The  business  of  procuring  and  export- 
ing these  girls  is  chiefly  conducted  by  a  woman  known  by  the  name 
of  Kate. 

This  is  fearful,  and  is  the  darkest  blot  on  our  civiliza- 
tion. But  let  us  not  suppose  that  England  is  alone  in  her 
iniquity.  Such  is  not  the  case.  There  is  France  with  her 
voluptuous  tendencies  and  gilded  indecencies ;  and  even 
our  own  Puritan  country  has  no  sufficient  reason  for  saying 


TRAFFIC    1ST   HUMAN    FLESH.  265 

"  stand  aside,  I  am  holier  than  them."  A  citizen  of  Great 
Britain  in  Chicago,  roused  by  the  sarcastic  comments  of 
the  city  press  on  the  immorality  of  London,  expresses  him- 
self in  the  accompanying  letter,  published  in  the  Tribune, 
and  which  gives  a  not  unfair  picture  of  this  evil  as  it  exists 
in  many  American  cities. 

Granting  that  the  Gazette's  reports  are  true  to  the  letter  what  city 
on  this  continent — had  we  one — of  4,000,000  could  not  greatly  dis- 
count them  ?  Here  in  Chicago  vileness  of  the  character  referred  to 
by  the  Gazette  is  rampant,  and  it  is  not  hidden  so  much  as  it  is  in 
London.  Traffic  in  young  girls  of  tender  age  is  not  needed,  as  our 
streets  at  certain  hours  find  scores  of  them,  scarce  in  their  teens,  so- 
liciting immoral  commerce.  If  the  two  crimes  could  be  weighed  in 
the  same  scales  it  would  be  found  that  more  men  are  seduced  by 
young  girls — children,  rather — than  girls  seduced  by  men,  young  or  old. 
I  can  call  to  mind  within  less  than  six  years  where  five  virtuous  work- 
ing girls  tendered  themselves  as  "  lady  friends "  to  one  gentleman, 
provided  he  would  keep  the  matter  to  himself  and  help  them  to  pur- 
chase finer  clothing  than  the  wages  they  were  receiving  would  enable 
them  to  buy.  These  five  girls  were  pure  so  far  as  their  virtue  was 
concerned  when  this  offer  was  made,  as  they  were  examined  by  a 
physician  to  test  that  fact.  The  devil  had  been  put  into  their  heads 
by  one  of  their  shopmates,  who  was  "lady  friend"  to  a  railroad 
official,  who  gave  her  seven  dollars  per  week.  On  another  occasion  a 
mother — bear  that  in  mind — volunteered  the  use  of  her  two  daughters, 
virgins — both  handsome  girls,  one  fourteen  and  the  other  sixteen— to 
a  gentleman,  provided  he  would  pay  her  rent  for  a  building  on  Mich- 
gan  avenue  where  she  desired  to  let  out  rooms.  Being  told  that  such 
a  vile  proposition  was  infamous  ou  her  part  she  coolly  remarked  that 
here  in  Chicago  the  thing  was  not  uncommon,  and  that  the  girls 
would  most  probably  fall  into  evil  ways  anyhow,  and  that  she,  their 
mother,  might  as  well  have  the  benefit  of  their  services  as  anybody 
else,  as  she  had  to  feed  and  clothe  them.  We  need  not  go  abroad  for 
vileness.  It  is  here  with  us. 

Ah  !  If  these  things  are  so,  and  question  them  we  dare 
not,  how  much  better  are  the  creatures  given  up  to  this 
vice  than  Herod,  Nero,  Heliogabalus  and  other  Sybaritical 
wretches  of  the  ancient  world  ?  We  seem  to  be  imitating 


266  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

their  unspeakable  obscenities.  Yea,  it  looks  as  though  we 
were  pressing  hard  after  the  debauches  of  the  more  modern 
Valois ;  were  greedily  conforming  to  the  putrid  dissolute- 
ness of  the  Bourbons ;  and  were  mimicking  the  prudish 
corruptions  of  the  court  of  Louis  XIV.  The  shameless 
excesses  of  the  Regency,  and  the  gilded  bagnio  of  Louis  XV., 
and  the  dominancy  of  the  infamous  Pompadour,  and  of  the 
more  infamous  Du  Barri,  all  appear  to  have  something 
like  a  contemptible  counterpart  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
Alison  writing  of  that  period  in  France  declares  "that  all 
we  read  in  ancient  historians,  veiled  in  the  decent  obscuri- 
ties of  a  learned  language,  of  the  orgies  of  ancient  Babylon, 
was  equaled,  if  not  exceeded,  by  the  nocturnal  revels  of 
the  Regent,  the  Cardinal  Dubois  and  his  licentious  associ- 
ates;" and  is  it  not  likely  that  this  sentence,  with  but 
little  modification,  fairly  portrays  the  hold  that  salacious- 
ness  has  on  some  classes  still  ?  But  while  prostitution  wher- 
ever it  reigns  is  as  horrible  now  as  ever  in  the  past,  we  do 
not  think  the  past  could  ever  show  as  strong  a  sentiment 
in  favor  of  home  and  of  the  domestic  virtues,  or  a  clearer 
conception  of  the  dignity  of  personal  purity  than  prevail 
at  present.  There  are  apparently  two  streams  flowing  side 
by  side ;  the  one  is  black,  slimy,  filthy  ;  the  other  limpid, 
transparent  and  pure.  At  the.  beginning  the  black  river 
appeared  to  extend  everywhere,  almost  bankless ;  but 
when  the  white  one  came  its  channels  were  slowly,  alas ! 
too  slowly  narrowed,  and  to-day,  while  it  is  as  foul  and 
putrid  as  ever  it  was,  the  white  river  has  expanded  its 
bosom,  grown  broader  and  deeper,  so  that  we  are  not  with- 
out hope  that  jn  the  fullness  of  time  it  shall  outstrip  and 
overwhelm  its  fecculent  neighbor.  This  allegory  hardly 
needs  interpretation.  The  rivers  are  licentiousness  and 
chastity.  They  have  been  flowing  for  many  centuries  in 
close  proximity,  and  they  have  never  changed  their  char- 
acter. The  former  is  as  vile  and  repulsive  as  it  was  in  the 


GAMBLING.  267 

days  of  Nero,  and  always  will  be ;  but  the  latter  is  slowly 
making  its  way,  and  the  very  exposure  of  the  beastliness 
of  its  shameless  rival  must  add  materially  to  its  victorious 
progress. 

Gambling,  the  third  of  the  vices  we  are  considering, 
like  licentiousness,  seems  to  belong  to  no  age  in  particular, 
but  to  all.  .  And  it  is  only  reasonable  to  conclude  that  now 
as  really,  if  not  in  the  same  degree,  it  exerts  its  almost 
irresistible  fascinations  over  civilized  and  savage  men, 
over  kings  and  subjects,  over  the  ignorant  and  cultured. 
When  it  succeeds  in  obtaining  dominion,  its  rule  is  im- 
perious, and  generally  enduring.  Dr.  Eckeloo  published 
a  book  exposing  the  awful  phases  of  this  fearful  malady ; 
and  yet  with  his  own  book  quoted  against  him,  fell  a  vic- 
tim to  the  terrible  scourge.  Sir  John  Denham  also  tried 
in  vain  to  break  the  spell  that  bound  him  to  the  tables;  and 
even  poor  Oliver  Goldsmith  failed  to  emancipate  himself 
from  its  charm.  So  strong  are  the  chains  forged  by  a 
passion  for  games  of  chance,  that  the  enlightened  rulers  of 
Japan  enacted  this  law  :  "  He  who  ventures  his  money  at 
play  shall  surely  be  put  to  death ; "  and  the  Western  na- 
tions have  also  been  compelled  to  adopt  stringent  restrictive 
measures.  Such  being  the  case,  it  is  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine the  due  proportions  of  this  vice  in  modern  times, 
as  it  necessarily,  in  many  instances  at  least,  courts  secrecy. 
Indeed,  the  wide-awake  mayors  of  our  cities  and  our 
police  officers,  blessed  forever  be  their  sagacity  and  watch- 
fulness !  say  that  they  cannot  discover  the  haunts  of 
gamblers,  and  that  they  can  give  no  estimate  of  their 
number  or  resources.  We  have,  however,  sometimes 
thought — may  we  be  forgiven  the  base  suspicion  ! — that 
they  could  easily  know  more  than  they  claim  to  know 
were  it  not  that  they  frequently  rely  on  blacklegs  to  for- 
ward their  election  to  office,  and  conveniently  overlook  what 
it  is  their  duty  to  suppress.  These  officials  are  certainly 


208  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

blind  to  what  is  familiar  to  every  one  who  is  crazily  intent 
on  ruining  himself.  The  fact  is,  they  cover  up  the  truth, 
and  imagine  themselves  to  be  a  kind  of  a  Supreme?  Court, 
and  assume  the  right  to  pronounce  on  the  advisability  of 
enforcing  laws,  if  not  to  decide  on  their  constitutional- 
ity. This  is  practically  the  course  they  usually  pursue. 
They  know  the  law  forbids  gambling,  and  yet  .they  have 
the  impertinence  to  assume  that  its  execution  is  discre- 
tionary with  them,  as  though  they  were  a  tribunal  of 
appeal  above  all  tribunals  known  to  the  Constitution. 
What  they  are  really  authorized  to  do,  is  simply  to 
enforce  the  statute  as  it  stands,  without  regard  to  its 
wisdom  or  unwisdom;  and  if  they  fail  to  do"  it  they  should 
be  held  amenable.  It  ought  to  be  enacted  that  the  city 
where  a  man  is  robbed  by  gamblers  shall  be  counted 
responsible  for  the  crime,  shall  refund  the  money  to 
the  victim,  and  the  neglectful  officials  pay  a  heavy  fine. 
Under  some  such  wholesome  regulation  it  would  be  a 
comparatively  easy  thing  to  estimate  the  strength  of  the 
gambling  fraternity,  and  equally  easy  to  determine  the  pros- 
perity of  their  nefarious  calling.  But  we  must  not  suppose 
the  den  of  the  "Tiger"  is  always  concealed  and  ever  seeks 
retirement.  No;  in  a  degree  it  courts  publicity,  especially 
when  it  has  received  an  encouraging  wink  from  the  author- 
ities. The  author  of  the  Nether  Side  of  New  York  said 
that  in  1872  there  were  not  over  one  hundred  faro  banks  in 
the  metropolis — we  presume  he  meant  to  add  "known  to 
the  know-nothing  mayor."  He  also  shows  that  the  leading 
places  of  this  character  are  equipped  from  garret  to  cellar 
with  great  splendor,  and  that  every  device  fitted  to  lull 
the  moral  sensibilities  is  found  within  their  walls.  Rich 
carpets  cover  the  floors,  choice  pictures  hang  from  golden 
rods,  while  gilded  furniture  and  elegant  ornaments  are 
artistically  arranged  about  the  rooms.  Waiters  are  em- 
ployed to  anticipate  the  wishes  of  the  guests,  refreshing 


THE  COSTLINESS  OF  VICE.  269 

viands  and  sparkling  wines,  free  of  all  cost,  tempt  them. 
Think  of  the  thousands  of  such  splendid  and  luxurious 
dens  in  this  and  other  lands,  and  of  the  millions  invested 
us  capital  in  them  and  in  the  game  itself;  and  likewise  of 
the  fact  that  in  some  of  the  more  aristocratic  gambling 
hells  $100,000  will  at  times  be  hazarded;  and  a  faint  idea 
at  least  may  be  formed  of  the  extent  to  which  prevails  this 
consuming  and  deadly  curse.  If  to  all  this  we  add  the 
various  lottery  schemes,  some  of  which  have  received  the 
support  of  a  few  states;  also  the  common  habit  of  betting 
on  every  conceivable  uncertainty,  from  the  speed  of  a 
horse  to  the  issue  of  an  election;  and  if  we  unite  with 
these  the  mania  for  speculation,  which,  after  all,  is  only 
betting  clothed  with  the  respectability  of  trade,  we  shall 
have  a  pretty  wide  area  covered  by  the  operations  of  this 
reckless  spirit,  and  shall  be  tempted  to  conclude  that  its 
blighting  influence  is  almost  conterminous  to  humanity 
itself,  especially  to  the  male  portion  thereof. 

These  vices  are  necessarily  very  costly,  and  it  may  not 
be  wholly  useless  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  how  costly  they 
are.  To  many  of  us  who  look  on  these  subjects  from  the 
standpoint  of  political  economy  they  are  simply  enormous 
sources  of  wastefulness.  They  are  a  constant  drain  on 
the  wealth  of  a  nation  as  they  are  on  its  honor  and  purity. 
As  we  have  shown,  very  frequent  are  the  lamentations 
over  the  inequalities  of  Society,  and  as  a  rule  very  Uto- 
pian remedies  are  proposed.  One  party  would  divide  land 
among  the  population;  another  would  distribute  wealth 
and  land  both;  and  most  of  our  so-called  reformers 
would  have  the  sober  and  industrious  classes  do  all 
the  sacrificing  for  the  elevation  of  the  people.  But  there 
is  one  thing  they  don't  suggest,  without  which  there 
can  be  no  permanent  advancement,  and  without  which 
all  sacrifices  would  be  absolutely  vain.  They  do  not 
propose  to  save  the  millions  now  annually  swallowed 


270  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE, 

up  by  dissipation,  and  which,  if  judiciously  invested, 
would  very  soon  provide  every  poor  family  in  the  land 
with  a  home.  It  is  not  necessary,  even  if  it  were  feasible, 
to  confiscate  private  property  for  the  public  good.  All 
that  is  needed  is  to  apply  the  money  now  squandered  in 
liquor,  gambling,  and  lewdness  to  the  purchase  of  lots  and 
farms,  and  if  freeholds  can  make  a  prosperous  people 
we  should  be  prospered.  In  proof  of  this,  let  us  look  at 
a  few  figures,  which  if  they  are  not  very  poetic  are  certainly 
very  instructive.  "Ireland's  drink  bill,"  an  American 
paper  informs  us,  "is  for  one  year  $50,000,000.  Absentee 
landlords,  accounted  one  of  her  greatest  curses,  draw 
annually  from  the  people  but  $26,000,000.  Mr.  Yillars 
Stuart,  member  of  parliament  for  Waterford,  made  the 
statement  in  Dublin:  ' One-half  of  the  amount  of  what  is 
annually  spent  for  drink  in  Ireland  would,  if  annually 
applied  for  the  purpose,  buy,  in  fifteen  years,  the  fee  sim- 
ple of  all  the  farms  in  Ireland/  It  would  be  well  enough 
to  deny  any  further  American  donations  for  the  political 
emancipation  of  Ireland  until  that  unhappy  land  shows 
some  disposition  to  help  itself  by  curtailing  its  whiskey 
bill."  Chief  Justice  Coleridge,  of  England,  says  that 
four-fifths  of  the  crime  in  that  country  results  from 
drink,  for  which  the  British  subjects  pay  some  $500,000,000 
a  year.  Another  instructive  example  is  furnished  by 
Germany.  In  the  kingdom  of  Prussia,  in  1882,  the 
estimated  expenditure  on  spirits  alone  was  61,000,000 
marks,  while  all  the  direct  State  taxes  for  the  same  period 
produced  but  150,000,000  marks.  Taking  the  whole  ex- 
penditure upon  beer,  wine  and  spirits,  it  amounted  to 
907,000,000  marks,  or  more  than  double  the  amount  realized 
by  the  Prussian  exchequer  for  its  taxes,  stamp  duties,  etc. 
But  let  us  come  to  our  own  nation,  and  ascertain  what 
it  costs  to  supply  our  enlightened  citizens  with  liquor. 
Mr.  Edward  Atkinson  has  shown  that  it  demands 


AMERICA'S  SALOON  BILL.  271 

$5,690,000.000  to  feed  our  teeming  population;  and  it  is 
an  interesting  inquiry,  how  much  does  it  require  to  quench 
the  thirst  of  this  multitude?  In  reply  we  give  an  article 
published  recently  in  an  illustrated  paper,  and  founded  on 
reports  printed  by  the  National  Bureau  of  Statistics. 

^It  is  commonly  supposed  that  the  amount  of  money  spent  in  this 
country  every  year  for  intoxicating  liquors  forms  one  of  the  smaller 
items  of  expenditure.  The  facts,  however,  show  that  the  drink  bill 
of  the  country  exceeds  the  cost  of  any  other  article  of  daily  consump- 
tion. In  the  year  1883  (ending  June  30th)  the  government  received 
in  internal  revenue  as  taxes  on  distilled  spirits  $74,368,775 — a  sum 
which,  at  the  rate  of  ninety  cents  a  gallon,  represents  82,631,972  gal- 
lons. This  quantity  of  liquor  was  chiefly  composed  of  whiskey  and 
brandy.  The  price  of  whiskey,  as  sold  at  the  saloons,  is  fifteen  cents 
for  each  glass  of  half  a  gill,  or  $9.60  a  gallon;  the  price  of  brandy  is 
twenty -five  cents  a  glass  or  $16  a  gallon.  At  the  drug  stores  the  best 
brandy  retails  at  least  at  $12  a  gallon,  and  the  best  whiskey  at  $5. 
To  the  consumer,  therefore,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  cost  of  this 
quantity  of  eighty -two  millions  of  gallons  would  be  at  least  $6  a  gal- 
lon. The  total  sum,  therefore,  thus  expended  would  aggregate 
$495,791,832. 

In  1883  the  government  received  as  internal  revenue  for  taxes  on 
fermented  liquors  $16,900,615 — a  sum  which,  at  the  rate  of  duty  of  $1 
a  barrel,  represents  16,900,615  barrels.  Each  barrel  contains  at  least 
thirty -one  gallons.  No  less,  therefore,  than  523,919,065  gallons  of 
fermented  liquor  form  the  annual  consumption  in  the  United  States. 
Each  gallon  contains  a  dozen  glasses,  and  a  glass  is  seldom  or  never 
sold  at  less  than  five  cents,  and  is  frequently  sold  at  double  this  price. 
On  this  basis,  therefore,  $314,351,439  are  thus  expended. 

It  is  well  known  that  while  we  export  little  or  no  liquor,  we  im- 
port large  quantities.  In  1880  the  duties  on  imported  liquors  exceeded 
eight  millions  of  dollars.  It  is  also  well  known  that  large  quantities 
of  native  wines  are  consumed.  It  is  further  generally  recognized  that 
a  considerable  amount  of  whiskey  and  of  other  distilled  liquors  escape 
taxation.  But,  on  the  contrary,  liquor  is  used  for  mechanical  and 
scientific  purposes.  The  quantity  thus  used  is,  however,  in  compar- 
ison with  that  otherwise  consumed,  small 

To  sum  up,  then,  these  various  facts:  Excluding  all  imported 
liquors  and  all  native  wines,  and  allowing  that  the  amount  of  spirits 
that  escapes  taxation  is  equal  to  the  amount  vised  in  mechanical  and 


272  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

scientific  pursuits,  it  is  made  evident  that  the  annual  drink  bill  of  the 
United  States  is  equal  to  $800,000,500. 

The  relative  size  of  this  expenditure  becomes  manifest  by  refer- 
ence to  other  expenditures.  In  1880  the  total  product  of  all  the 
' '  flouring  and  grist  mills  "  of  the  country,  according  to  the  census, 
was  $505,000,000.  The  value  of  all  the  woolen  goods,  including 
nearly  every  article  in  the  manufacture  of  which  wool  was  used,  was 
$237,000,000.  The  value  of  the  cotton  goods  was  $210,000,000;  of 
boots  and  shoes,  $196,000,000;  of  sugar  and  molasses,  $155,000,000. 
In  the  year  1881  the  States  and  Territories  spent  for  public  education 
about  $85,000,000.  The  churches  of  all  denominations  demand  for 
their  annual  support  about  $60,000,000.  Tho  drink  bill  of  the  nation 
equals  its  expenditure  for  all  cotton  and  woolen  goods  manufactured, 
for  all  boots  and  shoes  worn,  and  for  all  sugar  and  molasses  consumed 
The  annual  drink  bill  exceeds  by  $300,000,000  the  annual  bread  bill. 

These  estimates — which  we  venture  to  believe  will  appeal  to  the 
reader  as  reasonable — do  not  include  the  indirect  cost  of  the  liquor 
drank.  This  indirect  cost  embraces  waste  of  time,  the  expenses 
attending  the  trial  of  offenses  committed  by  persons  intoxicated,  and 
tl\e  expense  of  $100,000,000  in  the  maintenance  of  the  million  paupers 
of  the  country.  The  wardens  of  the  State  prisons  usually  affirm  that 
intemperance  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  crime  of  at  least  foux-fifths  of 
the  criminals;  and  it  is  universally  confessed  that  it  is  the  principal 
agent  in  the  creation  of  the  pauper  class  of  the  community. 

We  hope  it  will  not  be  attributed  to  vanity,  if  we  once 
more  introduce  Chicago  to  the  attention  of  our  readers. 
We  reside  there,  and  necessarily  on  that  account  are  some- 
what biased;  but  it  is  only  as  a  matter  of  simple  justice  to 
her  that  we  show  that  she  does  her  full  share  in  wasting 
these  almost  fabulous  millions.  She  is  always  thirsty,  per- 
haps drinks  more  liquor  per  head  than  any  other  city,  not 
forgetting  the  rivalry  of  Boston,  and  certainly  she  leaves 
St.  Louis  far  behind,  and  swallows  more  atrocious  stuff 
than  the  entire  State  of  Missouri.  In  this  respect  she 
excels,  as  in  almost  everything  else  of  the  same  kind.  The 
struggle  for  higher  license  which  took  place  a  short  time 
since,  led  her  leading  journals  to  investigate  the  real  con- 
dition of  the  liquor  traffic  in  the  metropolis  of  the  West, 


THE   COST   OF    LIQUol;.  273 

and  resulted  in  much  valuable  and  reliable  information. 
We  give  in  substance  what  we  have  gathered  from  these 
sources,  moderating  rather  than  exaggerating  the  figures. 
And  first  of  all,  we  learn  that  there  are  over  3,700  saloons, 
which  annually  receive  at  the  rate  of  $30  for  each  of  our 
600,000  inhabitants.  A  newspaper  recently  stated  that  in 
a  space  of  five  blocks  one  way  by  four  another,  there  are 
500  liquor  saloons,  200  bagnios,  150  concert  saloons,  gamb- 
ling houses,  and  pool-rooms,  where  12,000  young  men 
resort  daily.  The  total  amount  squandered  in  Chicago  for 
drink  is  about  $18,500,000 ;  but  who  can  tell  what  the 
other  vices  cost  ?  There  is  no  way  of  obtaining  a  reliable 
estimate.  Of  course,  we  can  guess  from  the  number  of 
places  where  infamy  carries  forward  its  trade,  and  from 
the  hosts  of  servants  it  employs,  that  its  maintenance  must 
involve  millions.  But  how  many?  If,  with  the  liquor 
bill  before  us,  we  venture  to  suggest  that  the  citizens  pay 
$30,000,000  per  annum  for  all  forms  of  dissipation,  we 
think  we  shall  rather  underestimate  than  overestimate  the 
amount.  But  to  realize  the  true  significance  of  these 
figures  let  us  note  what  revenue  the  city  receives  from 
those  who  are  permitted  to  carry  on  a  business  which  is 
'thus  impoverishing,  and  what  she  expends  on  education. 
Set  over  against  each  other,  the  account  stands:  Revenue, 
at  $52  a  license,  $192,000  in  all ;  education,  about 
$800,000.*  For  this  trifling  sum  she  endangers  the  well- 
being  of  the  community,  and  though  $30,000,000  at  least 
are  being  spent  to  debase  and  corrupt  her  people  she  can 
only  afford  some  $800,000  to  provide  a  remedy.  It  likewise 
will  help  to  measure  this  Avaste  if  we  ascertain  how  many 
churches  she  has,  and  the  money  needed  to  carry  them  on. 
In  Chicago  there  are  200  churches,  small  and  great;  the 
average  expense  of  conducting  each,  set  at  $8,000  gives  us 


*  The  present  high  license  hardly  varies  the  relative  proportion  of 
these  estimates. 
18 


274  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

$2,080,000.  What  a  contrast!  For  the  education  and 
regeneration  of  man  we  spend  each  year  less  than  three 
millions;  for  his  corruption  and  ruin  we  pay  forty.  Do 
you  wonder  that  there  should  be  as  much  sorrow  and  hope- 
less agony  as  there  is,  and  that  so  many  should  be  appar- 
ently doomed  to  poverty?  Remember  that  of  the  $18,500,- 
000  spent  for  drinks  in  this  city,  at  least  $10,000,000  comes 
from  the  pockets  of  people  in  moderate  circumstances;  and 
that  this  sum  carefully  handled  would  give  each  year  two 
thousand  families  comfortable  homes  valued  at  $5,000  each. 
But,  bad  as  all  this  is,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  attorney, 
Harry  Rubens,  Esq.,  who  appeared  on  behalf  of  the  saloon- 
keepers before  the  committee  on  licenses  during  the  discus- 
sion to  which  we  have  referred,  the  witnesses  quoted  have 
not  done  this  fair  city  justice.  According  to  Mr.  Rubens, 
she  drinks  far  more  than  we  have  made  out.  We  hasten 
to  correct  our  error,  if  error  has  inadvertently  been  com- 
mitted; and  therefore  append  an  abstract  of  his  speech, 
with  some  comments — seemingly  ungracious — on  its  esti- 
mates made  by  the  Standard.  The  advocate  argued  against 
higher  licence  in  these  terms: 

Everybody  who  knew  anything  about  the  business — the  expense 
of  running  it — was  aware  that  with  an  average  income  of  $25  a  day 
a  saloon-keeper  was  barely  able  to  make  a  living — hardly  more  than 
the  wages  of  an  ordinary  mechanic;  and  it  would  be  an  act  of  injustice 
to  charge  these  men  a  greater  license  fee  than  $52.  But  when  the 
receipts  exceeded  that  sum,  the  expenses  being  about  the  same,  the 
profits  were  large,  and  a  saloon-keeper  who  took  in  $35  to  $50  a  day 
was  able  to  pay  a  larger  sum  for  a  license.  Where  the  gross  receipts 
increased  from  10  to  15  per  cent,  the  profits  increased  in  a  greater 
ratio.  For  this  reason  he  asked  that  the  minimum  fee  be  fixed  at  $52 
for  saloons  whose  yearly  receipts  were  $10,000  and  under;  that  those 
which  took  in  more  than  $10,000  and  less  than  $15,000  be  charged 
$100;  those  between  $15,000  and  20,000,  $200;  those  between  $20,000 
and  $25,000,  $350;  and  all  whose  gross  receipts  were  more  than  $25,- 
000,  $500.  The  latter  would  cover  all  that  took  in  $60  a  day,  those 
in  the  heart  of  the  city  and  some  on  the  outskirts. 


BREAD   AND    RUM.  275 

And  here  we  have  the  Standard's  reflections: 

It  seems,  according  to  this — and  Mr.  Rubens  would  not  speak  at 
random  for  his  clients — that  the  daily  receipts  of  the  3,800  saloons  of 
this  city  range  from  $25  to  $60  per  day.  At  the  minimum  the  re- 
ceipts would  be  $9,128  a  year.  Multiply  this  by  3,800,  and  we  have 
the  enormous  sum  of  $34,775,000!  Can  it  be  possible!  Take  the 
next  figure  given  by  Mr.  Rubens,  and  call  it  an  average,  and  the  re- 
ceipts of  one  saloon  reach  $12,770,  and  of  the  3,800  the  $48,526,000. 
If  Mr.  Rubens  is  anywhere  correct  in  his  figures,  the  cost  of  liquors 
to  the  drinkers  of  Chicago  is  double  what  we  ever  supposed  i|  was.* 

Assuredly  his  representations  are  staggering  and  con- 
fusing. It  seems  utterly  incredible.  Why,  a  city  that 
spends  as  much  as  this'for  drink  and  as  little  for  schools, 
colleges,  churches  and  art,  ought  to  take  as  its  only  suit- 
able symbol  infamous  Jack  Falstaff,  with  his  penny's 
worth  of  bread  and  his  enormous  quantity  of  sack.  We 
hope  that  under  the  new  license  law  an  improvement  is 
taking  place.  We  are  persuaded  that  it  is  not  stringent 
enough  to  curtail  this  awful  waste  in  any  sensible  degree. 
Would  that  it  could  be  cut  down,  even  to  one-half;  would 
that  the  entire  nation,  as  well  as  our  own  city,  would 
reduce  its  score  at  the  dram-shop;  yea,  would  that  the 
American  people  would  arrest  this  prodigality  for  good 
and  all.  What  can  we  expect  when  our  population  in 
America  drinks  $800,000,000  and  pays  $400,000,000  more 
to  provide  prisons,  poorhouses  and  asylums  for  those 
whom  the  drink  has  mastered  and  maddened,  but  misery, 
degradation  and  ultimate  despair?  Then,  $60,000,000  is 
all  that  this  nation  contributes  for  the  annual  support  of 
its  churches,  and  much  of  that  is  given  grudgingly;  and 
yet  some  persons  affect  to  be  surprised  that  religion  is  not 
more  potent,  and  that  the  masses  are  not  more  prosperous. 
Surprise!  We  rather  think  the  surprise  is  that  such  enor- 
mous sums  can  be  squandered,  and  applied  to  human  deter- 


*  The  present  high  license  hardly  varies  the  relative  proportion  of  the 
estimates. 


276  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

ioration,  and  this  nation  or  any  other  be  able  to  escape 
bankruptcy  alike  in  character  and  fortune. 

In  the  face  of  all  figures  to  the  contrary,  there  are  quite 
a  number  of  intelligent  people  in  every  large  community 
who  cannot  see,  or  at  least  assert  that  they  cannot  see,  how 
the  liquor  traffic,  which  gives  employment  to  so  many 
thousand  men,  and  pays  so  large  a  revenue  to  the  govern- 
ment, can  possibly  be  wasteful,  or  in  any  way  perilous  to  a 
nation's  financial  soundness.  We,  on  our  side,  are  amazed, 
to  speak  politely,  at  their  obtuseiiess;  but  perhaps  it  may 
make  the  matter  clearer  to  their  minds  if  we  invoke  the 
aid  of  a  few  primary  economical  principles,  which  justify 
all  that  we  have  said  regarding  the  ruinous  prodigality  of 
vice  in  general,  and  of  the  drinking  habit  in  particular. 
Political  Economy,  as  our  readers  are  aware,  is  concerned 
with  wealth;  is  that  branch  of  inquiry  which  aims  to  ascer- 
tain the  laws  and  how  best  they  can  be  expressed,  govern- 
ing its  production,  distribution  and  consumption.  A  great 
variety  of  definitions  have  been  given  of  this  science;  and 
while  the  one  we  have  suggested  may  be  open  to  criticism, 
for  all  the  purposes  of  this  argument  it  is  sufficiently  accur- 
ate. To  be  more  precise  would  involve  us  in  discussions 
beyond  the  demands  of  the  issue  before  us,  and,  therefore, 
would  be  of  no  advantage  to  the  reader.  Wealth  being  the 
subject  of  this  science,  we  are  first  of  all  naturally  led  to  ask, 
what  are  its  sources?  Some  disagreement  exists  on  this 
point  :  Adam  Smith  himself  seems  to  have  held  no  very 
consistent  views  regarding  them;  but  in  one  place  appears 
to  teach  that  labor  is  the  mother  of  all  wealth,  and  in  other 
passages  that  it  is  derived  from  land,  labor  and  capital.  (See 
Wealth  of  Nations,  Vol.  1,  pp.  1-44;  Vol.  I,  p.  78;  Vol. 
II,  p.  24.)  Subsequent  writers,  and  notably,  some  writers 
of  today,  claim  that  labor  exclusively  is  entitled  to  the 
honor  of  enriching  mankind.  But  whether  this  narrow 
doctrine  is  the  true  one  or  not,  we  know  that  all  three  of 


PRODUCTIVE    LABOR.  277 

these  factors  are  engaged  in  the  production  of  intoxicants 
and  in  their  distribution;  and  that  in  an  inferior  degree  the 
same  is  true  of  gambling  and  lasciviousness.  A  multitude  of 
laborers  are  employed  in  all  three  of  these  departments, 
immense  capital  is  back  of  them;  and  a  vast  acreage  all  over 
the  world  is  devoted  to  the  growing  of  cereals  for  brewing 
and  distillation;  and  an  immense  amount  of  real  estate  is 
likewise  used  for  storehouses,  saloons,  bagnois  and  gam- 
bling hells.  But,  though  all  these  means  are  set  to  work, 
is  the  money  which  results  from  their  adoption  deserving 
the  name  of  wealth?  In  other  words,  has  there  been  any- 
thing gained  to  the  community  from  these  investments; 
toils  and  endeavors?  To  answer  this  question  fairly  we 
must  notice  the  distinction  drawn  by  Political  Economy  be- 
tween productive  and  unproductive  labor.  Turn  to  Wealth 
of  Nations  (Vol.  II,  p.  12),  and  you  will  there  read. 

There  is  one  sort  of  labor  which  adds  to  the  value  of  the  subject 
upon  which  it  is  bestowed:  there  is  another  which  has  no  such  effect. 
The  former,  as  it  produces  a  value,  may  be  called  productive, 
the  latter  unproductive  labor.  Thus  the  labor  of  the  manufacturer 
adds  generally  to  the  value  of  the  materials  which  he  works  upon, 
that  of  his  own  maintenance  and  of  his  master's  profit.  The  labor  of 
a  menial  servant,  on  the  contrary,  adds  to  the  value  of  nothing. 

And  on  the  same  point  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill,  arguing  that 
"labor  is  not  creative  of  objects  but  of  utilities,"  and  that 
"  these  utilities  are  of  three  kinds,"  he  presents  them  in 
the  following  order: 

1.  Utilities  fixed  and  embodied  in  outward  objects;  by  labor 
employed  in  investing  external  material  things  with  properties  which 
render  them  serviceable  to  human  beings.  2.  Utilities  fixed  and 
embodied  in  human  beings;  such  as  knowledge,  skill  or  experienci-. 
To  this  class  belong  teachers,  professors,  clergymen,  physicians,  etc. 
3.  Utilities  not  fixed  or  embodied  in  any  object,  but  consisting  in  a  mere 
service  rendered,  a  pleasure  given,  an  inconvenience  or  pain  avertedt 
but  without  leaving  a  permanent  acquisition  in  the  improved  qualities 
of  any  person  or  thing.  To  this  class  must  be  referred  the  labor  of 
the  musical  performer,  the  actor,  the  reciter  and  the  showman. 


278  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

Mr.  Mill  also  observes,  "We  should  regard  all  labor  as 
productive  which  is  employed  in  creating  permanent 
utilities,  whether  embodied  in  human  beings,  or  in  any 
other  animate  or  inanimate  objects."  And  yet  on  the 
whole,  when. he  reaches  his  climax  he  is  constrained  to 
conform  to  common  usage,  and  to  "  understand  by  pro- 
ductive labor  only  those  kinds  of  exertion  which  produce 
utilities  embodied  in  material  objects."  Here  then  we 
have  the  answer  to  the  question  we  have  asked,  regarding 
the  economic  worth  of  vices  which  call  to  their  support 
toil  and  capital.  If  that  only  is  productive  labor  which 
"adds  value  to- the  subjects  on  which  it  is  bestowed,"  or 
"which  renders  them  serviceable  to  human  beings,"  or 
improves  the  beings  who  are  to  enjoy  them,  or  at  least 
averts  pain  from  them,  then  the  labor  devoted  to  the 
liquor  traffic  is  necessarily  unproductive;  for  it  adds  no 
additional  value  to  the  material  used  in  its  various 
branches,  creates  no  permanent  utility  of  any  kind,  and 
instead  of  being  even  a  temporary  source  of  harmless 
amusement,  is  the  cause  of  privation,  sorrow,  and  crime. 

But  there  is  another  economical  principle  closely  allied 
to  the  one  we  have  just  applied,  and  which  may  be  stated 
and  examined  with  good  effect  in  this  connection.  It  re- 
fers to  productive  and  unproductive  consumption.  What 
is  meant  by  these  terms  two  masters  of  Social  Science  shall 
teach  us.  The  first  of  these  authorities  is  Mr.  Senior 
(Political  Economy,  pp.  54-55)  who  remarks: 

"Productive  consumption,"  is  that  use  of  a  commodity,  "which 
occasions  an  ulterior  product.  Unproductive  consumption  is,  of  course, 
that  use  which  occasions  no  ulterior  product .  The  characteristic  of 
unproductive  consumption  is,  that  it  adds  to  the  enjoyment  of  no  one 
but  the  consumer  himself.  Its  only  effect  upon  the  rest  of  the  com- 
munity is  to  diminish,  pro  tnnto,  the  mass  of  commodities  applicable 
to  their  use.  Some  commodities  are  unsusceptible  of  any  but  unpro- 
ductive consumption;  such  are  lace,  embroidery,  jewelry  and  other 
personal  ornaments,  which  are  simply  decorative,  and  afford  neither 


UNPRODUCTIVE    PROTECTION.  279 

warmth  nor  protection .     Under  this  head  may  also  be  ranked  tobacco, 
snuff  and  other  stimulants. 

The  other  is  Mr.  John  S.  Mill,  who  writes  in  the  book 
from  which  we  have  frequently  quoted,  as  follows: 

All  the  members  of  the  community  are  not  laborers,  but  all  are 
consumers,  and  consume  either  unproductively  or  productive!}' . 

*  *      *      What  productive  laborers  consume  in  keeping  up  and 
improving  their  health,  strength,  and  capacities  of  work,  or  in  rais- 
ing other  productive  laborers  to  succeed  them,  is  productive  con- 
sumption.    But  consumption  on  pleasures  or  luxuries,  whether  by 
the  idle  or  by  the  industrious,  since  production  is  neither  its  object, 
nor  in  any  way  advanced  by  it,  must  be  reckoned  unproductive. 

*  *      *      There  are  numerous  products  which  may  be  said  not 
to  admit  of  being  consumed  otherwise  than  unproductively.     The 
annual  consumption  of  gold  lace,  pine-apples,  or  champagne  must  be 
reckoned  unproductive,  since  these  things  give  no  assistance  to  pro- 
duction, nor  any  support  to  life  or  strength,  but  what  would  equally 
be  given  by  things  much  less  costly. 

Now  it  needs  no  argument  nor  even  the  appearance  of 
argument  to  prove  that  harlotry  and  gambling  are  not  only 
unproductive,  but  worse  than  unproductive,  are  indeed  ab- 
solutely destructive;  and  the  case  is  as  conclusive  against 
intoxicants.  Keep  the  definitions  and  distinctions  of  Mr. 
Senior  and  Mr.  Mill  before  you,  and  you  cannot  fail  to  see, 
unless  you  willfully  close  your  eyes,  that  the  consumption 
of  beer  and  ardent  spirits  has  all  the  characteristics  of  un- 
productive consumption.  It  does  not  result  in  any  ulterior 
product,  unless  it  be  crime  and  suffering;  it  contributes  to 
no  one's  enjoyment  except  it  be  that  of  the  tippler,  and  the 
pleasure  he  tastes  very  speedily  turns  to  bitterness;  it  de- 
prives the  community  in  proportion  as  it  prevails  of  com- 
modities necessary  to  its  well-being,  and  it  fails  even  to 
improve  the  laborer's  health,  strength  and  capacity  for 
work;  and,  therefore,  for  all  these  reasons  it  must  be  re- 
garded as  thoroughly  unproductive  of  anything  having 
worth  or  value  to  Society.  If  it  shall  be  said  that  the 
economists  we  have  quoted  rank  the  use  of  jewelry,  gold 


280  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

lace,  and  pine  apples  with  the  consumption  of  liquor,  and 
that,  therefore,  we  ought  to  speak  of  them  alike  and  in  the 
same  terms  of  contempt;  we  may  be  permitted  to  observe 
that,  while  with  propriety  they  may  be  placed  in  the  same 
category,  they  are  yet  in  several  respects  very  dissimilar. 
There  is  not  as  much  money  lavished  on  the  former  as  on 
the  latter;  and  what  is  expended  comes  mainly  from  the 
pockets  of  the  affluent,  and  not,  as  in  the  case  of  strong 
drink,  from  the  meager  earnings  of  the  poor;  then,  as  to 
diamonds  and  precious  ornaments,  they  have  a  value  that 
is  comparatively  permanent,  while  liquor  of  every  kind  is 
essentially  a  perishable  article;  and  in  addition  to  all  this, 
luxuries  such  as  Mr.  Mill  refers  to,  apart  from  intoxicants, 
have  never  been  known  to  work  such  mischief  to  health 
and  morals  and  property,  as  intoxicants  have.  But  even  if 
there  were  not  this  to  be  said  in  extenuation  of  the  con- 
sumption of  lace,  ornaments,  and  other  personal  extrava- 
gances, it  would  not  help  the  interests  of  stimulants  one 
particle.  It  would  only  prove  that  humanity  is  more  reck- 
less, prodigal  and  improvident  than  had  been  supposed, 
and  would  leave  untouched  the  great  fact  that  alcohol  is 
more  thoroughly  destructive  of  wealth  than  any  and  all 
other  pernicious  agencies  combined.  To  sum  up  what  we 
have  said,  if  the  manufacture  of  liquor  cannot  be  classed 
with  utilities,  then  it  is  wasteful,  and  the  more  capital  and 
labor  it  employs  the  more  wasteful  it  is;  and  if  the  con- 
sumption of  liquor  is  unproductive  to  community  of  any 
advantages  in  return,  then  it  is  still  wasteful;  that  is,  how- 
ever, viewed  by  Political  Economy  the  same  sentence  is 
pronounced  against  the  entire  traffic  and  use  of  intoxi- 
cants: they  are  pronounced  to  be  inexcusably  wasteful, 
inevitably  tending  to  pauperism  and  financial  cataclysms. 
They  are  as  fatal  to  material  prosperity  as  the  rush  of  the 
simoon  would  be  to  a  garden  of  flowers  or  a  field  of  grain  ; 
and  we  might  just  as  well  regard  the  simoon  as  the  breath 


PLEAS   FOR    STROXO    DRINK.  281 

of  Paradise,  as  to  suppose  that  the  drink  trade  and  the 
drink  habit  have  in  them  any  promise  of  deliverance  from 
poverty  and  ever  increasing  destitution.  All  the  vices  are 
alike  in  this  respect.  There  is  very  little  choice  between 
them,  save  as  to  the  extent  of  their  desolations.  They  are 
destroyers,  marauders,  despoilers,  rapacious  and  insatiable, 
and  Society  can  never  hope  for  any  remarkable  change  for 
the  better  in  its  condition  until  they  are  outlawed  and 
overthrown. 

The  terrible  indictment  which  the  bitter  experience  of 
generations  warrants  us  in  drawing  up  against  these  three 
Gorgons  would  be  incomplete  were  we  to  overlook  their 
repulsiveness  and  guiltiness.  They  are  mean,  horrible  and 
criminal;  and  yet,  strange  to  say,  they  are  not  without 
apologists.  Especially  is  this  true  of  the  liquor  plague. 
Though  the  editor  of  the  London  Times  twelve  years  ago 
wrote  of  drunkenness  in  England  as  a  ''nuisance  and 
scandal, "and  declared  that  "  the  use  of  strong  drink  pro- 
duced more  idleness,  crime,  disease,  want  and  misery  than 
all  other  causes  put  together;"  and  though  Sir  William 
Gull,  the  eminent  physician,  asserts  "  that  alcohol  is  the 
most  destructive  agent  in  the  country;"  still  there  are  men 
so  infatuated  that  they  enter  a  plea  on  behalf  of  what  they 
are  pleased  to  term  "temperate  drinking."  They  would 
have  a  community  play  with  fire  and  not  be  burned;  they 
would  have  humanity  sip  poison  and  not  be  killed.  This 
is  the  common  delusion  and  it  has  led  to  ignominious 
graves.  A  recent  writer  has  expressed  the  opinion  "  that 
the  moderate  drinker,  other  things  being  equal,  will  do 
better  work  in  the  world  than  the  total  abstainer."  Fur- 
ther, "that  the  half  million  of  drunkards  are  but  poor 
stuff,  for  whom  we  have  no  business  to  sacrifice  in  our 
daily  duties,  the  added  force  which  alcohol  would  give." 
And  to  confirm  his  position  he  has  suggested  that  "the 
ruling  powers  of  the  world  have  ever  been  addicted  to 


282  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

arde.ut  spirits."  We  shall  not  discuss  with  this  gentle- 
man the  physiological  effects  of  alcoholism  on  the  body 
and  brain  of  mankind,.  Indeed,  the  question  has  already 
been  thoroughly  examined,  and  has  been  definitely,  and 
we  may  say  finally  settled  against  its  claims.  It  is  a 
poison,  deranging  the  system,  exciting  and  then  depress- 
ing unduly,  ending  at  last  in  paralysis  or  madness  or 
both  combined.  This  is  the  verdict  of  science.  As  to 
the  best  work  being  done  by  those  who  rely  on  its  stimulat- 
ing properties,  we  are  not  prepared  to  admit  any  such  assump- 
tion. In  all  departments  of  thought  and  endeavor  there 
has  of  late  been  very  much  accomplished  of  exceeding  great 
merit;  and  Society  is  beginning  to  perceive  that  men  may 
be  skilled  physicians,  eloquent  pleaders,  wise  statesmen 
and  successful  merchants  without  being  tipplers.  Indeed, 
the  conviction  is  rapidly  gaining  ground  that  they  will 
be  more  reliable,  efficient  and  clear-headed  the  less  they 
have  to  do  with  intoxicants.  It  is  true  that  "  the  ruling 
powers  of  the  world  "  have  not  been  abstainers.  Possibly 
this  fact  may  account  for  their  corruption,  oppressions, 
blunders  and  cruelties.  Could  it  be  shown  that  in  the 
past  temperate  nations  have  succumbed,  and  that  nations 
where  drinking  has  been  encouraged  always  or  generally 
prevailed  over  them  and  eclipsed  them  in  civilization, 
then  we  might  begin  to  fear  that  a  drift  toward  sobriety 
would  result  in  'social  degeneracy  and  decay.  As  it  is 
we  have  not  one  historical  instance  of  an  entirely  sober 
country,  of  a  country  where  officials  and  people  have  been 
wholly  free  from  the  influence  of  liquor;  and,  consequently, 
any  sneering  depreciation  of  such  a  government  is  gratu- 
itous, and  a  poor  defense  of  a  bad  cause.  But  we  have 
instances  innumerable  of  what  kingdoms  and  states  become 
when  the  appetite  for  strong  drink  rages;  and  if  a  temper- 
ance Monarchy  or  Republic  could  possibly  ever  be  worse 
than  these,  then  is  hope  of  amelioration  utterly  vain  and. 


I.NTEMPEKATE    XATIOX>.  283 


misleading.  It  can  easily  be  shown  that  the  Assyrian,  the 
Babylonian,  the  Medo-Persian  Empires,  and  that  Egypt, 
Greece  and  Rome,  after  cultivating  in  their  earlier  years 
the  virtue  of  temperance  and  even  enforcing  it  by  law, 
were  successively  overthrown  by  the  predominance  of  luxury 
and  drunkenness;  and  their  history  thus  proves  that  it  has 
been  a  curse  to  mankind  for  "the  ruling  powers  of  the 
world  "  to  muddle  their  brains  and  stupefy  their  hearts. 
Its  use  has  always  been  a  peril  and  never  an  advantage; 
and  that  it  ought  always  to  be  so  regarded  may  be  gathered 
from  the  terms  in  which  Mr.  Lecky  describes  the  Act  of 
Parliament  by  which  the  distillery  trade  was  opened  to 
English  subjects  in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  his  history 
of  that  period,  he  writes: 

These-  measures  laid  the  foundation  of  the  greaj  extension  of  the 
English  manufacture  of  spirits,  but  it  was  not  till  about  1724  that  the 
passion  for  gin  drinking  appears  to  have  infected  the  masses  of  the 
population,  and  it  spread  with  the  rapidity  and  violence  of  an  epi- 
demic. Small  as  is  the  place  which  this  fact  occupies  in  English 
history,  it  was  probably,  if  we  consider  all  the  consequences  which 
have  flowed  from  it,  the  most  momentous  in  that  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  incomparably  more  so  than  any  event  in  the  purely  political 
or  military  annals  of  the  country.  The  fatal  passion  for  drink  was 
at  once  and  irrevocably  planted  in  the  nation. 

Such  testimony  as  this  is  conclusive  against  the  plea 
we  have  been  reviewing,  and  ought  to  convince  every  candid 
inquirer  that  it  is  unsound  in  every  particular.  Sir 
AndreAv  Clark,  an  eminent  medical  authority,  has  no 
patience  with  such  shallow  and  idle  defenses  of  a  great 
curse.  After  declaring  in  a  speech  that  in  his  hospital 
practice  he  found  seventy  out  of  every  one  hundred  cases 
the  result  of  strong  drink,  he  exclaims:  "  When  I  think  of 
the  terrible  effects  of  the  abuse  of  alcohol,  I  am  disposed 
to  give  up  my  profession  —  to  give  up  everything  — 
and  go  forth  upon  a  holy  crusade,  preaching  to  all  men, 
Beware  of  this  enemy  of  the  race!"  We  share  his  pas- 


284  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

sionate  indignation  when  we  read  the  silly  advocacy  of 
u  habit  which  has  never  been  anything  but  a  scourge  to 
humanity;  and  which  instead  of  helping  to  produce  bet- 
ter work  and  higher  government,  has  ever,  in  the  long 
run,  deteriorated  the  one  and  debauched  the  other. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  vices  of  Society  are  often 
extenuated  on  the  ground  that  they  are  the  outbreak  of 
natures  which  are  unduly  generous  and  free.  It  is  claimed 
that  kind-heartedness  and  a  spirit  of  genial  fellowship 
are  the  causes  of  dissipation;  and  that  in  our  condemna- 
tion of  the  evils  we  should  not  overlook  the  excellences 
from  whence  they  spring.  Vicious  tendencies  by  such 
apologists  are  almost  converted  into  virtues;  and  young 
men  are  encouraged  to  follow  their  own  base  inclinations 
by  the  thought  that  in  so  doing  they  are  merely  exhibit- 
ing the  warmer  and  more  admirable  side  of  their  charac- 
ter. Such  talk  is  enough  to  disgust  all  decent  and  cleanly 
souls.  Knowing  as  they  do  that  carnal  excesses  spring 
from  the  animal  propensities,  and  not  from  the  benevo- 
lent emotions,  and  that  they  are  indulged  in  a  thoroughly 
selfish  manner,  they  cannot  but  regard  this  plea  as  utterly 
false.  That  such  a  judgment  is  neither  harsh  nor  narrow 
let  the  vices  themselves  bear  witness.  There  is  a  custom 
yet  prevalent  that  marks  the  infamy  of  excessive  drink- 
ing. At  feasts  one  gentleman,  when  inviting  another  to 
drink  wine  with  him,  usually  says:  "I  pledge  you;"  and 
this  social  form  is  traced  to  treason  and  assassination. 
History  informs  us  that  Edward,  the  English  king,  while 
drinking  from  a  goblet  on  horseback  at  the  gate  of 
Corfe  castle,  was  stabbed  between  the  shoulders  by  the 
order  of  Elfrida,  his  stepmother.  The  murder  awak- 
ened general  distrust  of  men  when  they  were  in  their 
cups,  .and  led  to  the  custom  of  requiring  a  pledge  of  con- 
vivial neighbors  when  about  to  taste,  just  as  the  robber  de- 
mands that  his  victim  shall  hold  his  arms  up  to  prevent 


THE  DRUNKARD'S  CHIVALRY.  285 

unpleasant  contingencies.  Here  we  have  impressive  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  it  is  not  generousness  that  leads  to 
dissipation,  but  rather  meanness  and  wickedness.  Fre- 
quently and  awfully  is  this  testimony  confirmed.  Every 
little  while  men  are  arrested  for  beating  their  wives  to 
death  in  a  drunken  fit.  Having  sold  her  furniture, 
having  deprived  her  of  bread,  having  starved  her,  frozen 
and  abused  her,  some  such  maudlin  villain  tramples  out 
the  wasted  life  which  at  the  altar  he  vowed  to  honor  and 
protect.  Not  long  since  we  met  the  sickening  details  of  a 
monster  who  delighted  in  torturing  his  helpless  children, 
tying  their  naked  bodies  together  and  kicking  and  bruis- 
ing them  until  he  was  overcome  with  fatigue  and  fell 
into  a  drunken  slumber.  An  earnest  and  intelligent 
writer  in  the  London  Times  gives  similar  thrilling  illustra- 
tions of  the  natural  effects  of  alcholic  stimulants.  He 
says  : 

There  is  not  a  clergyman  in  any  large  town  but  has  his  memory 
charged  with  scenes  of  cruelty  to  wives  and  children,  often  going  on 
to  murder,  of  destitution  and  ruin,  of  hindrances  to  religion,  to  edu- 
cation, to  social  progress,  every  one  of  them  directly  caused  by  the 
drink.  Not  a  day  passes  but  typical  cases  are  occurring  to  which 
most  clergymen  could  find  parallels  in  their  own  experience.  Here 
are  two  or  three  from  your  own  columns  of  the  past  few  weeks : 

1.  (In  the  same  paper  with  the  article.)    A  woman,  Payne,  burnt 
to  death  by  a  lighted  paraffin  lamp  thrown  at  her  by  her  husband — 
drunk  at  the  time. 

2.  Joseph  Laycock,  of  Sheffield,  cut  the  throats  of  his  wife  and 
four  children.     Both  of  them  drunkards,  and  shortly  before  had  come 
o\it  of  a  public  house  together,  apparently  on  friendly  terms. 

3.  At  Bootle,  in  Lancashire,  one  brutal  wife  murder,  another  wife 
murder  and  suicide  in  one  week. 

4.  The  latest  of  all,  in  which,  when  a  father  had  murdered  one 
or  two  of  his  children,  and  came  to  another,  he  was  met  with  the 
piteous  cry,  "don't  do  it  to  me,  dada,"  and  yet  did  it. 

Is  it  said  that  these  are  exceptional  cases,  representing  their  own 
special  horrors  and  nothing  more  ?  Here  is  a  list,  then,  of  crimes 
committed  during  the  last  week  of  1883  and  the  first  of  1884,  col- 


286  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

lected  from  country  newspapers  by  the  Alliance  News,  every  one  of 
them  stated  to  have  been  "under  drink"  :  12  manslaughters  or  mur- 
ders, 15  cases  of  suicide,  18  of  attempted  suicide,  63  drunken  out- 
rages and  violent  assaults,  26  perilous  accidents,  13  robberies,  20 
stabbings,  cuttings  and  wouudings,  5  cases  of  insanity,  5  of  cruelty  to 
children,  74  assaults  on  women,  70  on  constables,  13  cases  of  juvenile 
intoxication. 

So,  likewise,  the  Inter- Ocean,  Chicago,  presents  for  the 
benefit  of  all  who  are  favorably  inclined  toward  the  drink- 
ing habit,  some  additional  evidences  of  the  overflowing 
generosity  which  is  alleged  to  be  its  source.  We  hope  our 
readers  will  ponder  these  marks  of  the  manly,  chivalrous 
spirit  which  it  exhibits. 

Of  all  the  boys  in  the  reform  school  at  Pontiac,  and  in  the  vari- 
ous reformatory  institutions  about  the  city,  95  per  cent  are  the  chil- 
dren of  people  who  died  through  drink  or  became  criminals  from  the 
same  cause.  Look  at  the  defalcations :  fully  90  per  cent  of  them 
come  about  through  drink  and  dissipation.  Go  into  the  divorce  courts  : 
fully  90  per  cent  of  the  divorces  come  about  by  drink,  or  drink 
and  adultery  both.  Of  the  insane  or  demented  cases  disposed  of  in 
court  here  every  Thursday,  a  moderate  estimate  is  that  70  per  cent 
are  alcoholism  and  its  effect.  I  saw  it  estimated  the  other  day  that 
there  are  10,000  destitute  boys  in  Chicago  who  are  not  confined  at  all, 
but  are  running  at  large.  I  think  that  is  a  small  estimate.  Men  are 
sent  to  prison  for  drunkenness,  and  what  becomes  of  their  families  ? 
The  county  agent  and  the  poor  house  provide  for  some.  It  is  a 
direct  expense  to  the  community.  Generally  speaking,  these  families 
go  to  destruction.  The  boys  turn  out  as  thieves,  and  the  girls  and 
mothers  generally  resort  to  the  slums.  Governor  Gaston  in  a  mes- 
sage to  the  Massachusetts  legislature  says  :  "  Intemperance  has  been 
the  most  prolific  source  of  poverty,  wretchedness  and  crime.  It  has 
filled  the  State  and  the  country  with  its  destructive  influences,  and 
its  progress  everywhere  heralds  only  misfortune,  misery  and  degra- 
dation." 

These,  then  are  some  of  the  magnanimous  doings  of 
intemperance!  Fie  on  it,  for  a  coarse,  cowardly,  animal- 
istic, savage  monster,  delighting  in  the  sufferings  of  others. 
Of  course  it  will  be  said  that  blame  for  such  excesses  as  we 


FRATERNITY   OF   GAMBLERS. 

have  noticed  must  be  laid  on  the  quality  of  the  liquor  and 
not  on  the  heart.  Absurd!  It  ought  to  be  laid,  first  of  all, 
on  the  low,  cruel  nature  of  the  man  which  is  excited  by  the 
liquor.  But,  divide  the  responsibility  as  you  please,  that 
which  leads  to  such  results  is  thoroughly  contemptible. 
We  ourselves  have  seen  the  dead  body  of  a  wretched 
woman  stretched  on  a  filthy  bed,  with  her  half  naked 
children,  pale  and  hungry,  staring  at  the  motionless  form 
from  whose  hands  they  had  never  received  anything  but 
blows,  and  whose  crazy  career  had  blighted  their  childhood. 
To  gratify  an  unnatural  appetite  we  have  known  honesty 
sacrificed,  friendships  broken,  and  every  sacred  and  en- 
nobling relation  to  be  disregarded  and  dishonored.  And 
as  this  vice  is  the  principal  cause  of  the  others;  and  as 
they  are  certainly  distinguished  by  black-hearted  mean- 
ness, there  can  be  no  language  adequate  to  portray  its  des- 
picable vileness. 

But  let  us  look  for  a  moment  on  its  corrupt  and  corrupt- 
ing sisters.  Enter  a  gambling  hell,  such  as  was  recently 
described  by  a  Chicago  paper,  where  everything  is  con- 
ducted on  robbing  principles;  and  to  maintain  the  busi- 
ness think  of  the  means  to  be  employed — swindlers  to  rob 
players  by  the  aid  of  marked  and  pricked  cards,  and  "  cap- 
pers," "steerers"  and  "ropers-in"  to  cooperate  with 
them,  combined  with  the  stealings  from  office  drawers,  and 
the  stimulating  potions  from  convenient  saloons,  or  yet 
more  convenient  sideboards.  But  that  you  may  have  a 
clearer  idea  of  the  open-hearted  manliness  and  unselfish- 
ness of  the  blackleg  fraternity,  take  this  picture  from  the 
article  referred  to,  and  which  appeared  in  the  Herald. 
The  reporter  is  giving  an  account  of  one  chivalrous  and 
generous  soul,  McDonald,  who,  it  seems,  is  quite  prominent 
in  refined  gambling  circles: 

Immediately  about  him,  as  a  sort  of  guard  of  honor,  at  176  Clark 
street,  he  has  Clif  Dellority,  George  Noyes,  Charley  "Winship  and 


288  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

Billy  Tyler.  DeHority  gets  15  per  cent  of  the  game.  George 
Noyes,  who  is  McDonald's  brother-in-law,  gets  20  per  cent,  and  Win- 
ship  10  per  cent.  Billy  Tyler  is  paid  $40  a  week.  McDonald's 
interest  in  the  game  is  55  per  cent,  and  the  furniture  and  fixtures  are 
all  insured  in  his  name,  unless  he  has  had  the  policies  transferred 
since  the  recent  exposure  in  the  Herald  of  the  inside  workings  of  the 
partnership.  The  four  men  whose  names  are  published  are  skilled 
"skin"  dealers,  and  deal  nothing  but  crooked  cards.  Two  sets  of 
"  casekeepers  "  are  hired,  one  set  for  the  day  and  one  for  the  night,  to 
assist  dealers  in  swindling.  The  duty  of  a  casekeeper  is  to  mark 
the  cards  as  they  are  drawn  from  the  box,  and  the  services  of  a  cheat- 
ing casekeeper  are  needed  wrhere  fifty -four  and  fifty  six  cards  are 
dealt.  This  place  employs  from  twenty  to  thirty  "cappers,"  "steer- 
ers  "  and  "  ropers-in  "  constantly.  That  176  Clark  street  is  a  "  skin  " 
house  is  known  by  every  professional  gambler  and  "  fly  "  man  in  Chi- 
cago. They  play  no  favorites  there,  robbing  everybody  who  comes 
within  reach.  The  special  feature  of  the  game  is  the  "  working  "  of 
drunken  men.  Free  whisky  is  kept  on  the  sideboard  in  the  gambling 
room — liquor  of  the  most  abominable  quality,  of  a  grade  called  "go- 
your-money  whisky  "  by  gamblers,  on  account  of  its  sense-destroying 
attributes — and  players  are  encouraged  to  drink  it,  in  order  that  they 
may  lose  what  little  intelligence  God  endowed  them  with.  When 
crazed  with  liquor  they  become  reckless,  and  give  up  their  money 
more  freely. 

In  an  equally  vivid  manner  our  reporter  gives  a  sketch 
of  a  lady  (?)  member  of  the  rascally  guild,  who  is  furious 
because  some  dens  have  been  closed  by  the  police,  and  who 
has  great  confidence  in  her  power  to  influence  some  distin- 
guished city  officials.  This  is  how  he  puts  it: 

The  deal  the  bloodsuckers  are  getting  has  infuriated  the  mob, 
and  Saturday  afternoon  and  evening  the  female  partner  came  up  town, 
filled  up  on  wine  and  made  an  exhibition  of  herself  on  Clark  and 
Dearborn  streets,  cursing  like  a  drab  and  boasting  that  she  had  more 
influence  at  headquarters  than  anybody,  and  would  "put  a  stop  to 
this  thing."  "  We  will  follow  those  who  are  trying  to  ruin  us,"  she 
shrieked  in  drunken  frenzy,  "from  pillow  to  post,  and  we  will  drive 
them  out  of  town."  That  she  was  not  arrested  and  carted  to  the 
lockup  indicates  that  she  may  have  a  "pull "  of  some  sort  on  the  City 
Hall,  but  just  what  the  extent  of  her  influence  is  and  how  she  works  it  is 
at  this  writing  a  matter  of  conjecture.  Her  partner's  (Mr.  Mike 


A   TERRIBLE   PICTURE.  289 

McDonald's)  solidity  in  that  quarter  seems  to  have  been  badly  shaken 
lately. 

These  portraits  taken  from  life  ought  surely  forever  to 
decide  the  character  of  the  sin  before  us.  It  is  evidently 
black  with  infamy;  and  is  as  utterly  destitute  of  pity,  of 
gentleness  and  mercy,  as  is  the  tiger  which  it  has  chosen 
as  its  emblem.  Enslaved  by  it  men  have  been  known  to 
sacrifice  the  home  and  fortune  of  children,  and  to  have 
staked  a  wife's  honor  on  the  throw  of  the  dice.  It  demor- 
alizes, it  corrupts  and  is  only  outstripped  in  shameless 
depravity  by  its  nearest  kin,  the  Social  Evil,  which  flaunts 
its  gaudy  attire  on  our  streets  and  thrusts  its  painted  face 
into  our  public  assemblies.  My  God!  what  terms  are  ade- 
quate to  portray  the  despicableness,  viciousness  and  even 
beastliness  of  lust!  The  attempt  to  describe  the  indescrib- 
ably filthy  would  only  defile  the  pen  of  him  who  writes  and 
the  mind  of  those  who  read.  We  shall  not,  therefore,  at- 
tempt anything  of  the  kind;  but  there  are  just  two  scenes, 
silhouettes,  black  reflections  and  outlines  of  black  immor- 
tality, which  we  will  transfer  to  our  page  and  leave  them 
to  tell  their  terrible  stories  of  betrayal,  ruin  and  revenge. 
The  first  is  from  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  and  is  worthy  the 
pen  of  Dickens.  Engaged,  we  suppose,  in  searching  out 
the  "Social  Evil,"  the  writer  having  related  various  fail- 
ures of  attempts  to  procure  a  certain  kind  of  victim,  con- 
tinues thus  : 

But  at  one  villa  in  the  north  of  London  I  found  through  the 
assistance  of  a  friend  a  lovely  child  between  fourteen  and  fifteen,  tall 
for  her  age,  but  singularly  attractive  in  her  childish  innocence.  At 
first  the  keeper  strenuously  denied  that  they  had  any  such  article  in 
the  house,  but  on  mentioning  who  had  directed  us  to  her  place  the 
fact  was  admitted  and  an  appointment  was  arranged.  There  was 
another  girl  in  the  house — a  bra/.en-faced  harlot,  whose  flaunting  vice 
served  as  a  foil  to  set  off  the  childlike,  sphituelle  beauty  of  the  other's 
baby  face.  It  was  cruel  to  see  the  poor  wee  features,  not  much  larger 
than  those  of  a  doll,  of  the  delicately  nurtured  girl,  as  she  came  into 
19 


290  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

the  room  with  her  fur  mantle  wrapped  closely  round  her,  and  timidly 
asked  me  if  I  would  take  some  wine.  Poor  child,  she  had  been  out 
driving  to  the  Inventories  that  morning,  and  was  somewhat  tired  and 
still.  It  seemed  a  profanation  to  touch  her,  she  was  so  young  and  so 
babylike.  There  she  was,  turned  over  to  the  first  comer  that  would 
pay,  but  still  to  all  appearances  so  modest,  the  maiden  bloom  not 
altogether  having  faded  off  her  childish  cheeks,  and  her  pathetic 
eyes,  where  still  lingered  the  timid  glance  of  a  frightened  fawn.  I 
felt  like  one  of  the  damned.  "She  saw  old  gentlemen,"  she  said, 
"  almost  exclusively.  Sometimes  it  was  rather  bad,  but  she  liked  the 
life,"  she  said,  timidly  trying  to  face  the  grim  inexorable,  "  and  the 
wine,  she  was  so  fond  of  that,"  although  her  glass  stood  untasted 
before  her.  Poor  thing!  When  I  left  the  house  as  a  guilty  thing- 
shrinking  away  abashed  from  before  the  presence  of  the  child  with 
her  baby  eyes — I  said  to  the  keeper  who  let  me  out,  "she  is  too  good 
for  her  trade,  poor  thing."  "Wait  a  bit,"  said  the  woman,  with  a 
leer.  "  She  is  very  young — only  turned  fourteen — and  has  just  come 
out,  you  know.  Come  again  in  a  couple  of  months,  and  you  will  see 
a  great  change."  A  great  change,  indeed.  Would  to  God  she  died 
before  that !  and  she  was  but  one. 

This  is  one  of  the  silhouettes — the  other  has  on  it  the 
stain  of  blood.  The  scene  was  not  in  London,  but  in  a 
city  nearer  home.  To  see  it  we  must  pass  the  portals  and 
enter  the  temple  of  justice,  where  a  poor  fallen  creature 
is  on  trial  for  her  life.  Her  still  handsome  features  show 
signs  of  suffering,  and  yet  of  exultation.  What  are  the 
particulars  of  her  crime?  She  shot  her  lover  in  an  excess 
of  fury — a  lover  who  had  not  hesitated  to  apply  the  "wages 
of  sin"  earned  by  her  in  a  career  of  shame  to  liquidate  his 
gambling  debts;  and  this  young  man  was  counted  generous 
and  genial,  as  good  natured;  and  not  unlikely  was  spoken 
of  by  some  as  a  little  fast,  but  "honorable,  you  know;" 
and  yet  he  appropriated  to  his  own  uses  the  earnings  of  a 
prostitute  and  repaid  her  oftentimes  with  blows.  Having 
alluded  to  such  scenes  as  these  we  need  not  refer  to  others. 
This  is  enough  to  show  that  licentiousness  is  essentially 
merciless,  cruel,  selfish  and  deceitful,  and  that  it  is  next 
to  blasphemy  to  speak  of  frankness  and  nobility  in  the 


VICE   GARLAXDED    BUT   CONTEMPTIBLE.  291 

same  breath  with  it;  and  enough  has  been  said  to  prove 
that  the  entire  group  of  vices  are  without  one  redeeming 
quality,  and  that  to  him  who  fosters  them  may  be  applied 
Castelar's  scathing  portrait  of  Nero:  "Here  in  these  gar- 
dens he  walked,  clothed  in  purple,  shod  with  azure  bus- 
kins; his  temples  crowned  with  laurels;  his  eyes  fixed  on 
the  heavens;  in  his  hand  a  zithern;  on  his  tongue  ancient 
Greek  verses,  and  in  his  heart  evil  passions;  he  was  consul, 
tribune,  dictator,  Caesar,  sovereign  pontiff — all  blessed 
him,  all  adored  him;  but,  alas!  he  was  despised  by  his  own 
conscience."  Such  is  vice — such  are  its  lovers — garlanded, 
adorned,  and  contemptible  even  to  themselves. 

Can  it  be  then  that  criminality  does  not  attach  to  these 
indulgences  ?  We  unhesitatingly  answer  in  the  negative. 
But  we  must  all  be  aware,  however  incredible  it  may  seem, 
of  a  theory  which  pretty  nearly  annuls  all  distinction  be- 
tween right  and  wrong,  by  ascribing  every  type  of  vicious- 
ness  to  inherited  and  uncontrollable  physical  appetites. 
This  theory  is  undoubtedly  the  legitimate  outcome  of  an 
exaggerated  philosophy,  which  regards  the  intellectual  and 
moral  nature  of  man  as  the  mere  result  and  product  of 
material  forces.  It  may  likewise  have  been  favored  by  the 
reaction  which  occurred  years  since  from  the  unreasonable 
servities  of  the  old  penal  code;  and  it  may  have  been 
strengthened  by  a  feeling  generated  in  Society,  that  having 
done  so  little  to  prevent  vice,  it  ought  not  to  be  over-harsh 
or  over-swift  in  pronouncing  condemnation.  But  whatever 
may  be  its  origin  or  its  support  we  cannot  subscribe  to  it. 
We  do  not  question  but  that  many  of  the  victims  of  excess 
are  to  be  pitied  more  than  denounced.  They  were  weak, 
circumstances  were  unfavorable,  they  were  tempted,  fell  ; 
perhaps  were  driven  by  manifold  trials  into  wrong-doing. 
We  commiserate  but  we  dare  not  wholly  exonerate.  The 
fire  of  indignation  is  partly  quenched  by  tears  of  sympathy; 
but  it  burns  nevertheless.  That  there  may  be  varying 


292  STUDIES  IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

degrees  of  guilt  we  do  not  deny,  and  that  every  instance  of 
waywardness  ought  to  be  judged  by  itself  we  admit;  but 
that  the  fatalistic  theory  is  tenable,  and  that  men  may  dis- 
figure character  and  life  without  criminality,  we  do  not 
believe.  To  our  way  of  thinking  such  casuistry  is  an  out- 
rage on  the  common  sense  of  the  world.  Take  the  accusa- 
tions brought  against  intemperance  by  Judge  Pitman 
(Alcohol  and  the  State),  weigh  them -carefully;  and  in  view 
of  them  answer  your  own  conscience  whether  it  is  not 
absurd  twaddle  and  empty  sentimentalism  to  consider 
inebriation  otherwise  than  as  a  crime: 

1.  Drunkenness  itself  is,  by  statute  and  by  reason,  a  crima — a 
social  nuisance. 

2.  Drink  excites  the  evil  passions;  how  much  or  how  little  it  takes 
to  do  it  is  a  question  of  temperament  and  circumstance. 

3.  It  fortifies  for  crime. 

4.  It  throws  off  the  reins  of  prudence.     Recklessness  is  one  of  the 
first  fruits  of  drink.     Reason  teaches  that  crime  is  folly;  alcohol 
clouds  the  reason. 

5.  It  tempts  to  crimes;  especially  to  lust  and  robbery,  by  putting 
the  victim  in  the  power  of  the  criminal. 

6.  And  emboldens  to  crime  by  rendering  its  detection  difficult 
when  the  necessary  witness  is  wholly  or  partially  insensible. 

7.  Idleness  and  poverty  are  prolific  agencies  in  the  production  of 
crime;  but  intemperance  is  the  main  cause  of  these. 

8.  Truancy  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  common  proximate 
causes  of  crime .     But  among  the  causes  of  truancy  that  which  so  far 
transcends  all  others  as  to  be  properly  considered  the  cause  of  causes  is 
the  immoderate  use  of  intoxicating  liquors. 

9.  Intemperance  is  the  efficient  ally  of  other  vices.    Wine  has  been 
well  styled  "the  devil's  water  power."    Without  it  much  of    the 
machinery  of  evil  would  stand  still. 

But  if  the  love  of  strong  drink  can  thus  be  branded 
righteously,  what  shall  we  say  of  gambling  and  licentious- 
ness? Are  they  less  blameworthy  and  devilish  in  their 
nature  and  influence?  No;  they  must  rank  with  their 
sister,  and  wear  with  her  the  penitentiary  garb  of  guilt. 


IMBECILITY   AND  VICE.  293 

It  wjll  not  do  to  say  that  these  things  are  wrongs,- things 
to  be  remedied,  things  that  are  abominable,  but  for  which 
the  perpetrators  should  not  be  severely  censured.  "  A  fire 
is  a  great  evil,  and  destroys  much  of  value.  We  do  not 
court  it,  or  fan  it;  but  at  the  same  time  we  do  not  become 
hysterical  and  denounce  the  materials  because  they  are 
combustible."  Very  true.  But  we  would  condemn  the 
incendiary  who  should  apply  the  torch,  and  we  would  not 
keep  him  out  of  prison,  or  deal  Avith  him  as  an  unfortunate 
being,  because  he  happened  to  have  a  mania  for  burning. 
We  would  try  him  and  punish  him.  Vice  also  inflames, 
consumes,  destroys,  and  should  not  the  men  and  women 
who  kindle  the  spark,  or  who  fan  the  blaze,  be  held  equally 
accountable?  People  who  are  not  philosophers  instinctively 
and  promptly  answer  "yes."  But  many  who  are  philoso- 
phers, or  who  so  regard  themselves,  will  still  argue  that  the 
poor  creatures  who  have  gone  wrong  are  enslaved,  that  the 
power  of  volition  has  been  practically  lost,  and  that  they  are 
therefore  to  be  looked  upon  with  an  eye  of  forgiving  com- 
passion. The  editor  of  a  religious  journal  several  yeai  s  ago 
met  this  plea  in  a  very  straightforward  manner,  and  indi- 
cated somewhat  vigorously  its  worthlessness.  Having 
termed  it  "  The  Gospel  of  Imbecility,"  he  writes:  "  Undoubt- 
edly the  wills  of  men  do  become  weakened  by  vice.  But  a 
will  that  has  become  weak  is  only  strengthened  by  using  it, 
and  you  do  not  encourage  a  man  to  use  his  will  by 'telling 
him  that  he  has  no  will  to  use."  Precisely  so:  and  we 
as  good  as  say  to  every  inebriate,  to  every  roue,  to  every 
gamester,  if  we  adopt  this  syllabub  theory  of  fatalism, 
''My  dear  Fellow,  you  can't  help  being  just  what  you  are, 
and  you  can  no  more  change  your  nature  than  the  tigress 
can  change  hers."  But  is  not  this  to  paralyze  virtue,  and 
to  render  reform  impossible?  How  can  we  change  the 
unchangeable,  how  alter  the  unalterable,  or  restrain  the 
irresistible?  It  cannot  be  done;  and  if  man  is  in  this 


294  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

changeless  state,  a  state  preordained  by  the  eternal  Desti- 
nies, then  he  cannot  be  rescued,  and  he  is  not  account- 
able. Such  a  mechanical,  soulless,  despairing  creed  we 
most  heartily  repudiate. 

That  it  is  not  true  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  thousands 
have  reformed  and  have  become  conspicuous  for  virtue; 
and  that  the  world  instinctively  condemns  those  who  do 
not  repent  and  lead  noble  lives.  Of  course,  if  men  hold 
to  the  doctrine  of  impotence  they  will  talk  sugary  things 
regarding  those  who  adhere  to  their  dark  ways;  but  if 
they  themselves  are  the  sufferers,  if  it  is  their  fortune 
which  the  clerk  squanders  at  play,  and  if  it  is  their  child 
whose  "soul's  white  lillies  are  robbed"  by  some  lecherous 
villain,  nature  and  common  sense  will  cry  out  within 
them  demanding  vengeance.  At  such  a  moment  they 
will  realize  the  fallacy  of  their  theory.  They  will  not 
then  speak  of  fixed  and  ungovernable  tendencies;  they 
will  emerge  into  what  will  be  to  them  practically  a  new 
world,  and  will  exclaim,  appealing  to  human  and  divine 
law,  "Avenge  me  on  my  adversary!"  Yes,  deep  down 
in  the  heart  the  conviction  abides  that  vice  is  culpable. 
It  may  be  obscured,  but  it  is  there.  It  is  there,  even  in 
the  hearts  of  the  vicious  themselves.  The  inebriate,  like 
poor  Charles  Lamb,  condemns  himself;  the  courtesan  who 
shoots  her  paramour  and  the  rake  who  abuses  his  mis- 
tress, look  not  on  each  other  as  unfortunate,  but  as 
unworthy;  and  the  reprobate  who,  like  Byron,  throws  a 
coin  on  some  dark  night  to  the  woman  he  has  ruined  and 
receives  it  back  with  scorn,  as  he  did,  his  shivering  vic- 
tim imitating  and  mocking  his  limping  gait,  hastens 
away  as  one  who  is  pursued  by  the  phantoms  of  deeds 
which  are  without  excuse.  They  all  bear  witness  to  the 
awful  truth  that  dissoluteness  is  criminal.  And  how 
deep,  scarlet,  measureless  this  criminality  is,  let  the 
thousands  of  neglected,  wretched,  houseless  children;  the 


CANONIZATION    OF    VICE.  295 

hundreds  of  sad,  poverty-stricken,  desolate  homes;  the 
scores  of  orphan  and  foundling  institutes  where  nameless 
ones  find  refuge;  the  other  scores  of  asylums  for  the  deaf, 
dumb,  blind,  and  insane  who  have  been  robbed  of  their 
senses  and  their  reason;  and  the  greater  number  of  jails, 
prisons  and  penitentiaries,  with  their  brutal,  violent  and 
desperate  tenants,  find  tongues  and  testify.  Let  them 
speak,  and  their  words,  interpreted  by  judges,  physicians 
and  philanthropists,  will  roll  at  the  door  of  these  black 
vices  the  responsibility  for  nearly  every  sigh,  tear,  groan, 
and  wail  wrung  from  the  poor  human  heart;  and,  therefore, 
they  who,  in  the  presence  of  such  world-wide  horrors,  can 
give  them  hospitable  entertainment  deserve  to  be  classed 
with  the  worst  enemies  of  the  race. 

Holland  many  years  ago  wrote  an  admirable  article  on 
"  the  Canonization  of  the  Vicious."  He  showed  how,  in 
the  opinion  of  many  persons  great  and  rare  abilities  pal- 
liated and  excused  moral  infirmities.  The  licentious- 
ness of  Goethe,  Burns,  and  Byron  he  pointed  out  did  not 
hinder  multitudes  from  rendering  homage  to  their  genius. 
Though  they  ruined  innocence  and  stimulated  drunken- 
ness, we  know  almost  everywhere  they  are  extolled  be^ 
cause  they  possessed  the  gift  of  song  beyond  their  fellows. 
The  meaning  of  this  singular  devotion  seems  to  be,  that  if 
we  can  sing  sweetly  we  may  sin  serenely,  and  if  we  can 
think  brilliantly  we  may  transgress  blamelessly.  In  other 
words,  according  to  this  way  of  judging,  a  poem  is  worth 
more  to  Society  than  self-denial,  and  art  is  more  precious 
than  righteousness.  Such  is  the  logical  outcome  of  special 
pleadings  on  behalf  of  wayward  genius.  Somewhere  it  is 
related  by  Froude  that  Pope  Clement  when  his  chambers 
rang  with  cries  of  justice  on  Benvenuto  Cellini,  whose 
murders  deserved  the  gallows,  exclaimed:  "All  this  is  very 
well:  these  murders  are  a  bad  thing.  But  where  am  I  to 
get  another  Benvenuto  if  you  execute  this  one?"  With 


296  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

his  Holiness,  talent  exonerated  crime,  and  with"  many 
people  talent  still  exculpates  vice.  Let  a  great  theatrical 
performer  come  to  the  city,  and  though  he  is  known  to  be 
a  reprobate  he  will  be  feasted  and  flattered;  and  let  an  ac- 
tress of  real  merit,  but  of  loose  morals,  appear  on  the 
stage  and  columns  of  praise  will  be  devoted  to  her,  and  she, 
too,  will  be  courted  and  honored.  So  of  our  artists,  our 
young  business  men,  our  promising  professionals,  however 
far  they  depart  from  virtue — unless  they  are  foolish  enough 
to  create  some  public  scandal — they  are  received '  every- 
where, and  all  whispers  to  their  discredit  are  hushed  with 
some  remarks  touching  their  smartness.  To  be  "smart"  is 
an  apology  for  much  wrong-doing.  But  so  long  as  this 
is  so,  is  it  likely  that  we  shall  succeed  in  rescuing  the 
thousands  who  are  not  smart,  but  who  are  vicious?  No, 
we  deprive  ourselves  of  power  when  we  overlook  in  genius 
what  we  condemn  in  commonplace.  This  is  felt;  and  there 
grows  an  impression  that,  after  all,  vices  are  not  so  terrible 
and  that  their  indulgence  is  forbidden,  not  so  much  on  ac- 
count of  their  wickedness,  but  because  rich  people  and 
cultured  people  don't  want  the  poor  and  ignorant  to  share 
in  their  hilarity.  If  we  abate  vice  we  must  treat  it  alike 
wherever  found.  It  must  disqualify  one  class  for  social 
privileges  as  certainly  as  another,  and  it  must  no  more  be 
respected  when  allied  with  talent  than  when  it  is  associated 
with  stupidity. 

From  what  has  been  said  regarding  these  abominations, 
it  must  be  evident  to  all  that  their  suppression,  is  not  only 
the  duty,  but  is  the  supreme  necessity  of  the  hour.  As  we 
have  intimated  more  than  once,  and  it  is  a  fact  which  can- 
not be  too  frequently  reiterated,  there  is  no  work  so  impera- 
tively demanded  or  so  full  of  promise  to  the  future  of  Society 
asthis.  But  the  question  arises — and  the  Babel-tongued  ans- 
wers it  receives  indicate  its  seriousness — how  is  this  much  de- 
sired result  to  be  achieved?  Various  are  the  measures  pro- 


CONFLICTING    MEASURES.  '.'H; 

posed,  and  at  times  bitter  and  fierce  is  their  unhallowed 
rivalry.  Instead  of  cooperating  together  as  far  as  possible 
in  a  sacred  crusade  against  the  common  enemy,  they  fre- 
quently come  into  conflict  with  each  other,  are  intemperate 
in  their  mutual  abuse,  and  are  total  abstainers  from  char- 
ity. They  seem  to  be  overcome  by  the  dead-drunkenness 
of  oblivion  so  far  as  discernment  of  anything  meritorious  in 
their  respective  schemes  is  concerned.  In  the  meanwhile 
the  dissipation  which  enervates,  and  the  excess  which 
palsies  humanity,  are  not  banished,  but  seem  rather  to 
thrive  in  this  atmosphere  surcharged  with  the  elements  of 
strife  and  storm.  Glendower  declared  that  he  could  "call 
spirits  from  the  vasty  deep;"  and  Hotspur  replied  that  so 
could  he,  but  wisely  queried  "  whether  they  would  come 
when  called."  In  the  opinion  of  the  fiery  soldier  the  per- 
formance, not  the  mere  invocation,  is  the  thing.  So  the 
prohibitionist  affirms  that  he  can  summon  the  spirit  of 
sobriety  from  the  fathomless  depths  of  politics;  and  the 
high-license  man  asserts  the  same  of  himself;  but  not  a  few 
gravely  and  even  harshly  express  the  doubt  whether  so- 
briety will  ever  heartily  respond  to  voices  such  as  theirs. 
Evidently  thus  far  it  has  not  come  when  called,  and  the 
other  virtues  have  also  been  as  reluctant  to  appear;  from 
all  of  which  we  may  gather  that  there  is  as  much  need  for 
cooperation  in  reform  movements  as  in  business  enterprizes. 
Probably  if  their  friends  could  combine,  and  would  as  far  as 
they  could,  and  if  they  were  willing  to  recognise  the  abso- 
lute indispensableness  of  moral  forces  in  their  campaign 
against  vice,  and  ceased  to  sneer  at  them  and  underrate 
them,  their  success  would  not  be  as  problematical  as  it  is  now. 
The  men  and  women  who  lead  in  the  great  conflict  against 
entrenched  iniquity  must  learn  that  they  cannot  afford  to 
despise  weapons  devoted  to  the  glorious  enterprise,  because 
they  were  not  manufactured  by  themselves,  nor  reject  them 
because  they  were  not  patterned  after  their  own.  We  must 


298  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

cease  to  censure,  even  though  we  may  criticise,  we  must 
cease  to  insult  though  we  may  not  be  able  to  praise,  and  we 
must  cease  from  denouncing  all  means  and  methods  but 
our  own  as  compromises  by  which,  to  quote  from  the  Tem- 
perance Revieiu  on  the  subject  of  high  license,  "  the  devil 
may  open  by-ways  to  hell  for  five  hundred  dollars  a  year." 
The  peril  is  so  imminent,  so  vast,  so  overwhelming,  that 
what  our  hand  finds  to  do  we  must  do  with  our  might,  and 
what  it  finds  to  do  it  with  must  be  employed  without  de- 
lay, for  as  Browning  says, 

Knowing  ourselves,  our  world,  our  task  so  great, 

Our  time  so  brief, — 'tis  clear  if  we  refuse 

The  means  so  limited,  the  tools  so  rude 

To  execute  our  purpose,  life  will  fleet, 
And  we  shall  fade  and  leave  our  task  undone. 

Of  all  the  forces  that  are  brought  to  bear  against 
drunkenness,  gambling  and  harlotry,  we  believe  that  more 
reliance  should  be  placed  on  those  of  a  moral  and  spiritual 
character  than  on  any  others.  Legal  enactments  are  un- 
doubtedly useful,  and  in  some  instances  may  prove  effica- 
cious; but  whether  to  prevent,  arrest,  or  exterminate  these 
banes  no  agency  can  surpass  in  adaptability  and  vigor  those 
which  search  out  and  deal  with  the  inner  and  higher 
nature  of  man.  Appetite  defies  restriction,  and  lust  over- 
leaps all  barriers.  Though  the  saloons  of  Chicago  have  to 
pay  a  $500  tax  instead  of  the  nominal  amount  exacted  of 
old,  and  the  revenue  derived  from  them  has  risen  to 
111, 500,000  instead  of  the  paltry  sum  formerly  collected, 
there  has  been  no  perceptible  abatement  in  the  quantity 
of  liquor  consumed  in  that  city.  In  Maine,  where  prohi- 
bition has  been  for  some  years  legally  in  force,  strong  drink 
can  very  easily  be  procured.  Bangor,  we  are  told  by  Gail 
Hamilton,  has  over  a  hundred  places  where  it  is  sold,  and 
free  rum  is  practically  the  rale.  "  You  can  get  liquor 
enough,"  she  testifies,  ''for  bad  purposes  in  bad  places. 


MOHAL   MEANS.  299 

but  you  cannot  get  it  for  good  purposes  in  good  places." 
These  statements  are  not  decisive  against  the  need  and 
worth  of  legislation.  It  were  an  illogical  conclusion  to 
infer  from  the  disregard  of  law  that  its  enactment  is  use- 
less and  valueless.  What  we  are  warranted  in  deducing 
from  the  frequent  evasion  of  statutes  and  government 
authority  is  simply  that,  taken  by  themselves,  they  are  not 
able  to  cope  with  and  suppress  the  animal  instincts  and 
passions  of  humanity,  and  that  to  do  this  absolutely  neces- 
sary work  a  different  kind  of  agency  must  be*  employed. 
A  cage  restricts  the  liberty  of  a  tiger,  but  it  does  not 
change  him;  and  if  he  can,  he  will  break  through  his 
prison  bars  and  display  the  tiger-nature  to  the  horror  of 
all  who  try  to  intercept  his  progress.  So  we  may  encage 
Vice  in  amendments  to  the  Constitution  and  in  city  ordi- 
nances, and  some  good  may  be  accomplished ;  but  these 
things  do  not  slay  the  monster  itself,  and  until  it  is 
wounded  to  the  death,  there  is  no  telling  when  it  will 
break  through,  mock  every  restriction,  and  carry  wretch- 
edness and  dismay  to  a  myriad  homes.  Incarceration  and 
coercion  then  are  not  sufficient,  and  something  more  than 
shackle,  gag,  hand-cuff  and  iron  collar  are  needed  to  save 
humanity  from  this  tyrant  scourge.  The  work  of  redemp- 
tion must  be  wrought  mainly  in  the  head  and  the  heart  of 
man,  not  in  his  surroundings.  He  must  be  taught  the 
reasonableness  of  self-masterv,  the  dignity  of  personal 
purity,  and  the  criminality  of  weaknesses  that  lead  to 
defilement.  His  mind  must  be  instructed,  his  will  must 
be  strengthened,  his  conscience  must  be  quickened,  his 
affections  must  be  cultivated,  and  every  faculty  and  power 
of  his  being  must  be  trained  in  the  habitudes  of  virtue. 
Surely  it  is  superfluous  to  add  that  such  effects  can  only 
be  produced  by  moral  means ;  that  is,  by  education,  home 
influences  and  religion. 

The  family  is  the  great  conservator  of  purity.     No 


300  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

agency  can  do  its  special  work,  and  no  movement  should  be 
countenanced  that  in  any  degree  would  diminish  its  sense 
of  responsibility.  Parents  are  the  most  important  builders 
of  character  in  the  nation;  they  do  more  than  lay  the 
foundation — they  determine  the  course  of  development. 
Many  among  them  fully  realize  their  obligation,  and  con- 
scientiously seek  to  shape  and  mold  their  children  aright. 
Were  they  all  thus  honestly  to  accept  their  mission,  and 
faithfully  to  discharge  it,  there  would  be  little  need  of 
repressive  -legal  enactments.  Reform,  therefore,  must 
begin  at  the  family.  The  household  must  be  entirely 
purged  from  wine-drinking,  from  gaming  habits,  and 
from  the  demoralizing  influence  of  divorce;  and  fathers 
and  mothers  must  be  urged  to  do  their  duty  in  fortifying 
the  minds  of  the  young  against  the  seductive  power  of 
debasing  temptations.  But  domestic  discipline  ought  to 
be  supplemented  by  public  education.  The  school,  the 
free  school,  the  common  school,  ought  to  give  more  atten- 
tion to  morals  than  it  does.  AVe  all  know  and  reverence 
its  power;  but  we  equally  know  that  it  is  deficient  in 
ethical  instruction.  Religion  has  been  practically  excluded 
from  its  halls,  and  the  authorities  have  been  unable  to 
provide  a  substitute.  At  present,  therefore,  we  are  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  without  any  recognized  standard  of 
right  and  wrong  in  our  public  institutions.  To  their 
credit  be  it  stated,  many  of  the  teachers  try  to  obviate  this 
defect  by  their  own  example  and  by  occasional  words  of 
counsel.  But  they  have  neither  text  book  nor  hour 
devoted  to  the  study  of  ethical  science,  and  scholars 
can  hardly  do  otherwise  than  infer  from  the  almost 
exclusive  attention  bestowed  on  Geography  and  Arith- 
metic that  they  surpass  in  practical  value  and  excellence 
the  law  of  upright  conduct.  Moreover,  the  teacher's 
commendable  endeavors  are  frequently  checked  by  the 
criticism  of  some  ignorant  or  bigoted  member  of  the 


ETHICAL  EDUCATION.  301 

School  Board,  to  the  end  that  she  is  teaching  the  Pro- 
testant Bible;  and  as  frequently  they  are  more  than  neu- 
tralized by  the  secret  introduction  of  obscene  pictures  and 
books  into  the  desks  of  the  boys  and  girls.  To  some  of 
our  readers  this  last  statement  will  appear  incredible, 
nevertheless  it  can  be  substantiated.  In  schools  where  the 
Bible  must  not  be  taught,  where  prayer  must  not  be 
offered,  and  where  formal  instruction  in  morals  is  utterly 
ignored,  debasing  novels  and  polluting  colored  photo- 
graphs have  been  found.  We  will  not  particularize,  for 
we  have  no  desire  to  spread  the  infection.  The  fact  is  as 
we  have  stated  it,  and  even  worse  than  we  care  to  put  in 
type.  Is  this  a  specimen  of  paternal  government  ?  If  it 
is,  there  is  certainly  room  for  improvement.  At  the  dic- 
tation of  an  alien  population  and  of  a  church  that  owes 
allegiance  to  a  foreign  potentate,  we  have  expurgated 
everything  that  looks  like  ethical  instruction,  and  yet 
have  not  been  watchful  enough  to  keep  out  the  subtle 
agencies  of  immorality.  That  is,  we  are  prompt  to  ex- 
clude the  good  lest  we  should  offend  a  multitude  who  have 
but  little  sympathy  with  our  institutions,  and  yet  are 
con  paratively  indifferent  to  the  invasion  and  ravages  of 
the  bad.  If  this  is  the  practical  working  of  "pater- 
nalism "  in  a  department  where  it  can  be  efficiently 
applied,  and  where  it  seems  to  be  necessary,  we  can  judge 
what  its  outcome  would  be  were  it  unreservedly  adopted 
as  the  organizing  principle  of  government.  The  baser 
elements,  then,  would  not  only  be  in  the  majority,  but 
they  would  rule  out  everything  offensive  to  them  at  all 
hazards.  Christians  can  never  consent  to  the  supremacy 
of  this  principle  without  sacrificing  liberty  of  conscience, 
and  surrendering  religion  to  the  tender  mercies  of  its 
natural  enemies;  and  they  cannot  but  deplore  that  it 
should  thus  far  have  proven  so  inadequate  an  ally  of 
virtue  when  applied  to  our  school  system.  We  insist  that 


302  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

there  must  be  a  radical  change.  Begin  at  the  foundation. 
Let  education  even  in  ita  earliest  stages  assail  vice. 
Instead  of  burdening  the  memory  with  wearisome  details 
regarding  mountain  and  stream,  develop  character.  Re- 
alize that  the  end  and  aim  of  true  endeavor  in  this  depart- 
ment is  not  to  cram  but  to  draw  from,  not  to  put  in  but 
to  bring  out.  And  among  other  qualities  to  be  "educed" 
or  to  be  "  led  forth/'  are  those  which  relate  to  the  discern- 
ment, and  defense  of  virtue.  Let  the  conscience  be 
properly  enlightened,  the  will  be  judiciously  strengthened, 
and  the  desires  and  appetites  be  duly  disciplined,  and 
we  shall  no  longer  send  out  from  our  schools  victims  but 
conquerors.  Men,  therefore,  who  really  long  for  the  deliv- 
erance of  our  country  from  drunkenness,  gambling,  and 
licentiousness,  while  they  may  advocate  legal  measures  of 
repression,  will  primarily  and  principally  address  them- 
selves to  the  indispensable  task  of  "educating "the  young 
out  of  their  inherited  and  natural  tastes  and  tendencies, 
which,  if  left  alone,  will  inevitably  rebel  against  all  State 
law  and  ultimately  end  in  ruin. 

In  this  work  also  the  Church  has  an  important  part  to 
play.  Indeed  she  is  the  source,  or  to  speak  more  strictly, 
the  channel  along  which  flows  from  the  divine  source,  the 
purest  morals  and  the  sublimest  ideals  and  motives.  Her 
mission  on  earth  is  not  merely  to  save  the  soul,  but  to  save 
the  life  as  well.  She  sustains  relations  to  Society  as  well 
as  to  Heaven.  In  the  world  to  come  she  is  to  have  a  crown 
because  she  has  been  victorious,  and  in  the  world  that  now 
is  she  should  have  a  throne,  provided  she  is  useful. 
Mystically  she  is  the  bride  of  Christ,  and  practically,  if  she 
is  anything,  she  is  the  mother  of  virtue.  Figuratively  the 
Church  is  generally  presented  as  a  woman,  and  literally,  at 
times,  she  is  not  unlike  some  women  in  timidity,  haughti- 
ness, and  love  of  display.  She  was  designed  to  be  an 
image,  type  and  prophesy  of  celestial  purity  and  glory; 


VOCATION   OF   THE   CRt'ECU.  303 

but  not  infrequently  she  has  been  made  the  counterpart 
of  terrestial  tinsel  and  shoddy  splendor.  Alas!  she  has 
also  played  the  harlot  with  kings,  courts,  millionaires,  and 
fashionables,  seeking  to  please  them,  nattering  them  by 
imitating  their  foibles,  and  overlooking  their  monstrous 
iniquities.  Of  course  there  have  been  seasons  when  she 
has  grasped  to  some  extent  the  sublime  character  of  her 
vocation,  has  shaken  the  dust  of  this  corrupting  earth  from 
her  garments,  and  has  risen  a  terror  to  tyrants  and  wrong- 
doers; but  never,  so  far  as  we  can  learn  from  her  history, 
has  she  fully  and  adequately  discerned  her  heaven-appointed 
place  in  the  conflict  between  virtue  and  vice,  or  employed  as 
she  ought  the  weapons  entrusted  to  her  against  the  insulting 
defiance  of  the  latter.  We  shall  not  speak  of  periods  in  her 
career, when  she  herself  was  scandalously  given  over  to  strong 
drink,  gambling,  and  lasciviousness.  The  past  is  past,  and 
let  it  be  past.  We  would  not  revive  it.  Rather  would  we 
think  of  the  Church  as  she  is  at  present,  the  avowed  though 
somewhat  polite  enemy  of  every  pernicious  habit.  She 
never  had  fewer  members  who  use  intoxicants,  nor  fewer 
who  disregard  morality  in  other  respects  than  now.  In 
comparison  with  her  condition  in  other  times,  she  is  clean 
and  beyond  reproach;  and  yet  she  seems  to  be  only  half 
alive  to  her  responsibility  for  the  appalling  dissipation  of 
the  age.  She  has  no  deep  and  abiding  conviction  that  she 
has  facilitated  the  growth  of  viciousness  by  her  indifference, 
and  by  her  seemingly  wilful  blindness  to  its  fatal  progress, 
or  that  she  can  do  more  than  civil  government  toward  its 
extermination.  When  moved  and  excited  on  the  subject 
she  frequently  declaims  against  officers  of  law,  judges, 
policemen,  and  rulers,  insisting  that  if  the  authorities 
would  only  do  their  duty  Society  could  easily  be  freed  from 
its  moral  plagues.  Her  sermons  on  this  point  are  generally 
very  eloquent,  and  not  altogether  unjust.  We  are  satisfied 
that  our  officials  could  do  more  than  they  do  to  deliver  com- 


304  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

nrnnity  from  the  evils  which  disgrace  it;  but  at  the  same 
time  we  are  convinced  that  they  are  no  more  to  blame  for 
their  permanence  and  prominence  than  the  members  of  the 
Church.  The  law  as  it  exists,  undoubtedly  ought  to  be  put 
in  force,  and  this  duty  rests  on  the  State,  and  if  performed 
our  affairs  would  be  in  a  more  salutary  way  than  they  are. 
This  is  unquestionable.  But  it  is  also  true  that  the  moral 
sentiment  which  is  needed  to  uphold  the  execution  of  the 
law,  and  without  which  it  must  ever  be  a  dead-letter,  is  in 
no  small  degree  the  creation  of  the. Church,  and  if  it  does 
not  exist  as  it  should  she  is  proportionately  accountable  for 
the  failure  to  men  and  God.  Moreover,  she  has  to  a  great 
extent  the  custody  of  the  young,  and  exerts  a  widespread 
influence  over  the  home,  and  is,  therefore,  inexcusable  if 
she  does  not  through  them  impede  the  development  of 
animalism.  In  revolutions  long  and  manifold  she  has 
occasionally  condemned  Sybarite  and  Cyprian,  and  has 
sanctioned  temperance  societies  here  and  there  and  patron- 
ized "Retreats"  for  fallen  women;  but  even  in  these 
directions  her  efforts  have  been  languid  and  almost  per- 
functory. Her  ministers  mostly  are  preaching  what  they 
call  "salvation/5  which  when  accepted  does  not  necessarily 
save  from  wine-bibbing,  card-playing,  and  from  other  forms 
of  self-indulgence;  and  if  these  same  ministers  should 
happen  to  lay  due  stress  on  the  enormity  of  vice,  and  should 
denounce  the  dissoluteness  of  the  age,  not  a  few  of  her 
members  would  gravely  reprove  them  for  not  proclaiming 
the  "gospel,"  and  very  likely  would  threaten  to  withdraw 
their  support  on  account  of  the  bigotry  of  the  pulpit.  If  a 
pastor  condemns  the  rum  traffic  some  of  his  dear  people  are 
almost  sure  to  accuse  him  of  preaching  politics — as  though 
it  were  an  unpardonable  sin  for  a  clergyman  to  love  his 
country — and  if  he  arraigns  the  libertine  and  the  courtesan 
in  unmistakable  terms,  he  will  hardly  escape  the  charge  of 
indelicacy;  and  if  he  lays  the  axe  at  the  roots  of  gambling 


DUTY    OF   THE   CHURCH.  305 

in  the  fat  soil  of  the  Stock  Exchange  he  will  be  avoided  as 
u  fanatic  or  be  reproached  as  a  slanderer.  The  actual  con- 
dition of  the  Church  is  simply  this:  She  is  more  decent  in 
her  own  life  than  ever  before,  and  entertains  the  very  self- 
complacent  impression  that  her  mere  existence  must 
influence  and  promote  reform  in  others;  but  she  has  no 
fervid  desire  to  engage  in  a  direct  and  intense  warfare 
against  current  indecencies.  This  is  true  of  her  as  a 
whole.  Among  her  members,  however,  there  are  many 
notable  exceptions. 

There  are  entire  congregations  that  discern  the  signs  of 
the  times  and  know  what  Israel  ought  to  do,  and  heroically 
attempt  to  do  it.  But  considered  as  a  unit,  as  a  single 
body,  and  getting  at  the  average  life  of  the  body,  the  con- 
dition of  the  Church  is  just  about  what  we  have  represented. 
A  change  for  the  better  is  therefore  needed.  The  Bride  of 
Christ,  must,  first  of  all,  cease  reproving  the  government 
for  its  faithlessness  until  she  herself  has  become  more 
faithful  to  her  vocation ;  she  must.,  in  the  next  place, 
release  her  ministers  from  the  arduous  task  of  tramping 
from  house  to  house  on  no  particular  errand  save  to  pet 
and  coddle  dissatisfied  professors  of  religion;  and  then  she 
must  purge  herself  from  every  affiliation  with  vice,  and 
direct  her  energies  and  organize  her  forces  to  subdue  it. 
By  concerted  and  well-planned  action  she  can  each  year 
visit  every  family  in  the  land,  can  instruct,  explain,  admon- 
ish, and  beseech,  and  can  come  into  personal  contact  with 
the  mass  of  the  debauched  and  inabstinent.  Her  agents 
must  not  hesitate  to  enter  saloons,  dives,  and  bestial  stews 
of  every  type,  and  entreat  and  persuade  revelers,  guzzlers, 
black-legs,  harridans,  and  wantons  to  abandon  their  fearful 
business.  Thew  success  will  not  be  immediate,  neither 
will  it  be  uniform.  They  will  be  reviled  and  ridiculed; 
but  the  Woman's  Crusade  in  Ohio  has  demonstrated 
that  Vice  cannot  withstand  the  sustained  and  determined 
20 


306  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

attacks  of  Virtue.  If  the  Church  is  in  earnest  let  there  be 
held  a  representative  congress  of  all  denominations,  not  to 
discuss  learned  questions  of  about  as  much  value  as  some 
that  perplexed  immortal  Pickwick,  nor  to  define  the  policy 
of  government,  neither  to  invoke  its  intervention,  but  to 
decide  in  what  way  Christianity  unitedly  can  most  effec- 
tively bring  to  bear  the  moral  means  at  its  disposal  on  the 
grave  problem  of  the  hour.  We  are  not  advocating  a  pro- 
hibition convention,  nor  a  dull,  dignified,  wind-blown 
assembly  for  the  passing  of  resolutions,  but  a  great  religious 
gathering  of  all  sects,  grimly  intent  on  looking  facts  in  the 
face,  and  pledged  to  combine  forces  and  move  with  the 
precision  of  an  army.  Such  a  gathering  should  define  the 
duty  of  the  church  and  should  organize  to  meet  it 
promptly,  systematically,  and  perseveringly.  This  can 
be  done;  this  is  feasible.  The  movement  thus  organ- 
ized, loyally  supported  in  every  town  and  village,  aiming, 
as  we  believe  it  should  aim,  at  personal  effort  with  indi- 
viduals and  families,  could  not  fail  to  make  a  profound 
impression  on  every  community,  and  would  ultimately 
lead  to  most  satisfactory  results.  Given  a  united  and 
earnestly  active  Christianity,  and  less  than  one  per  cent  of 
what  it  costs  to  degrade  the  nation  for  the  support  of 
workers,  and  to  provide  for  the  immediate  needs  of  those 
who  abandon  traffic  in  iniquity,  and  government  or  no 
government  cooperation,  we  may  confidently  promise  the 
future  comparative,  if  not  entire  freedom  from  the  ac- 
cursed vices,  which,  like  the  waters  of  the  Fountain  of 
Death  shown  in  the  story  of  Ubald,  now  excite  the  thirst 
and  mercilessly  kill.  But  if  we  are  mistaken,  if  this  confi- 
dence is  misplaced,  then  can  we  only  wonder  whether, 
after  all,  this  religion,  the  religion  of  marvels,  of  Christ, 
and' of  magnificent  assumptions,  is  as  grand,  mighty  and 
divine  as  we  have  heretofore  believed,  and  whether  at  best 
it  may  not  merely  be  a  beautiful  human  invention  inspiring 


OVER-WORK   AND   DISSIPATION. 

untenable  hopes,  but  utterly  powerless  to  deal  effectively 
and  successfully  with  the  practical  difficulties  and  dangers 
of  Society. 

Although  we  are  immovably  set  in  our  conviction  that 
immorality  can  only  be.  eradicated  through  moral  means, 
means  that  go  directly  to  the  heart  where  it  has  its  rootage, 
we  would  not  discard  assistance  from  any  ally  that  seeks 
in  good  faith  to  cooperate.  Mr.  Gladstone  is  credited 
with  the  declaration  "that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  govern- 
ment to  make  it  easy  for  the  people  to  do  right  and  diffi- 
cult for  the  people  to  do  wrong;"  and  we  not  only  echo 
the  sentiment  as  expressed,  but  believe  that  its  application 
should  be  extended  to  those  who  employ  labor  and  who 
control  its  fortunes.  Whatever  circumstances  are  favora- 
ble to  personal  pollution  ought  to  be  removed  as  soon  as 
possible,  and  legislators  and  capitalists  are  bound  by  every- 
thing sacred  and  patriotic  to  lend  their  aid  in  effecting 
such  changes  as  will  render  it  easier  for  the  people  to  do 
right.  George  Combe,  for  instance,  insists  that  over- work 
and  under-feeding  are  among  the  chief  causes  which  induce 
the  craving  for  stimulus.  Prof.  Fawcett  claims  that  the 
toiling  masses  are  reared  in  such  squalor  and  misery  that  to 
them  life  is  a  dreary  curse,  that  moral  beauty  has  no  ex- 
istence for  them,  and  that  dissipation  becomes  the  only 
available  gratification.  On  this  subject  The  Westminster 
Review  testifies: 

While  men  are  permitted  to  breathe  pestilential  air  all  their  life, 
how  can  AVC  expect  the  love  of  strong  drink  to  abate?  Shorter  work 
or  the  drooping  frame  will  infallibly  have  recourse  to  stimulants.  Give 
the  workingmen  libraries,  amusements;  lectures,  and  leisure  for  at- 
tendance; good  and  cheap  newspapers  have  already  done  much  to 
elevate  the  work-people,  and  will  do  much,  more;  park  excursions, 
woods  and  fields,  sky  and  open  air,  all  elevate  and  improve  man's 
better  nature. 

It  has  been  shown  bv  numerous  statistical  writers  that 


308  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

the  majority  of  girls  who  enter  on  a  life  of  shame  are  the 
wretched  victims  of  long  hours  for  work,  low  pay,  and  un- 
steady employment.  Circumstances,  as  we  all  must  admit, 
are  not  without  their  power,  and  while  we  should  encourage 
all  to  strive  against  them  when  they  are  evil,  we  should  do 
all  we  can  to  change  their  character.  This  we  must  at- 
tempt if  we  would  save  the  millions.  We  are  not  at  liberty 
to  leave  undisturbed  the  seeds  of  corruption,  because  we 
purpose  to  cut  down  their  after-growth.  Conscience  cannot 
be  pacified  by  such  a  line  of  conduct.  We  are  bound  to  pre- 
vent as  far  as  possible;  and  much  can  be  done  in  this  direc- 
tion by  putting  into  practice  the  suggestions  contained  in 
our  papers  on  the  "Inequalities"  and  "Sufferings  of  Soci- 
ety. "  The  reforms  there  advocated  are  of  such  a  character 
as  to  diminish  temptation,  and  to  render  virtue  attractive 
and  desirable;  and  this  is  just  what  is  needed  if  the  moral 
means  we  have  described  are  to  be  ably  seconded,  and 
social  regeneration  become  a  fact. 

How  far  government  can  legitimately  and  efficiently 
cooperate  in  this  work  is  a  question  not  readily  answered. 
We  are  agreed  that  the  State  ought  to  make  it  as  "easy  as 
possible  for  the  people  to  do  right;"  but  how  far  is  it  at 
liberty  to  go  in  its  benevolent  mission?  May" it,  for  in- 
stance, do  wrong  that  the  citizen  may  do  right?  May  it 
usurp  power,  and  subvert  personal  freedom  so  as  to  render 
deviations  from  virtue  impracticable?  Or  is  it  true  as  in- 
timated in  the  North  American  Review,  July,  1885,  "that 
a  man  must  often  be  left  free  to  do  wrong  rather  than 
forced  to  do  right?"  These  inquiries  indicate  that  legisla- 
tion is  not  without  difficulties,  and  demands  more  wisdom 
than  the  ordinary  politician  possesses.  Certainly  up  to  the 
present  no  legislation  has  successfully  dealt  with  the  evils 
of  which  we  complain.  Gambling  and  prostitution  have 
been  prohibited  time  after  time,  and  are  today  in  most  civ- 
ilized lauds;  and  yet  in  spite  of  pains  and  penalties  they 


PROHIBITING    VICE.  309 

flourish  in  a  remarkable  manner  everywhere.  They  have 
domesticated  themselves  among  us,  and  the  arm  of  the  law 
seems  too  short  or  too  feeble  to  prevail  against  them.  In 
some  countries  the  general  government  has  tried  to  regu- 
late licentiousness  by  licensing  the  houses  where  it  is 
carried  on;  but  the  result  has  been  exceedingly  discourag- 
ing. Instead  of  arresting  it,  this  supervision  has  appar- 
ently only  rendered  it  more  virulent.  The  plague  has 
spread  and  spread  under  this  fostering  care,  and  the 
authorities  have  found  themselves  at  last  burdened  with  a 
class  of  women  it  has  helped  to  form,  and  without  the  least 
proof  that  their  well-intended  plans  have  benefited  any 
one.  This  line  of  policy  evidently  is  to  be  condemned. 
The  license  theory  will  not  hold  when  applied  to  gambling 
and  lewdness.  Prohibition,  strict  unalterable  prohibition, 
is  the  only  principle  which,  whether  it  succeeds  or  fails,  a 
righteous  government,  anxious  "to  make  it  easy  for  the 
people  to  do  right,"  can  adopt.  Probably  all  our  readers 
will  agree  to  this,  and  probably  they  will  also  agree  that 
the  very  fact  of  prohibition,  whether  vigorously  enforced 
or  not,  must  in  the  long  run  abate  the  immoralities  we 
have  just  referred  to  by  rendering  them  thoroughly  disrep- 
utable and  criminal.  But  why  should  it  not  be  enforced? 
AVhat  is  to  hinder  the  execution  of  laws  designed  to  guard 
our  girls  from  contamination,  and  our  boys  from  degrada- 
tion? Why  shall  not  panders,  pimps,  and  the  libidinous 
wretches  who  patronize  them,  and  the  ropers-in  and  card- 
shufflers  be  dealt  with  summarily?  Certainly  there  are  no 
physical  obstacles  in  the  way.  The  police  force  is  sufficient, 
and  its  knowledge  of  the  guilty  parties  is  adequate.  The 
way  is  open,  the  will  only  is  lacking.  There  is  need  for 
moral  sentiment  to  constrain  magistrates  to  do  their  duty 
earnestly  and  thoroughly.  This  brings  to  mind  again  the 
work  the  church, the  family  and  the  school  have  to  do.  They 
are  back  of  courts  and  officials,  and  in  proportion  as  their  in- 


310  STUDIES    IN   SOCIAL    LIFE. 

fluence  triumphs  will  the  interdiction  of  bagnibs  and  gam- 
ing dens  and  of  the  scandalous  acts  that  are  perpetrated 
therein  be  made  effective. 

But  how  about  liquor  ?  Well,  we  see  no  particular 
reason  for  dealing  with  it  differently  than  we  have  recom- 
mended in  the  case  of  sensualism  and  gambling.  It  is  not 
enough  to  prohibit  drunkenness ;  the  making  of  drunkards 
must  be  prohibited  as  well.  The  first  we  have  done  from  the 
beginning  of  our  history;  but  the  time  has  come  to  address 
ourselves  to  the  second.  We  know  that  it  has  been  attempted 
in  Michigan,  and  that  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  has  pro- 
nounced it  a  failure,  and  that  Dr.  Dio  Lewis  has  expressed 
the  opinion  "  that  it  is  a  wild  theory,"  and  that  Dr.  How- 
ard Crosby  has  termed  it  "both  a  blunder  and  a  farce;" 
nevertheless  we  insist  that  the  principle  involved  is  the 
only  one  that  legislation  can  adopt  in  seeking  to  abolish 
drunkenness.  Thus  far  the  "attempts"  in  Michigan  and 
elsewhere  have  only  been  experiments,  and  experiments 
unsustained  by  popular  feeling  on  their  side.  They  have 
been  made  in  the  face  of  intense  opposition,  and  with  a 
deliberate  purpose  on  the  part  of  multitudes  to  frustrate 
their  object.  But  on  this  account  shall  we  discredit  pro- 
hibition ?  Ko  ;  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  we  should 
cease  to  forbid  harlotry  because  we  have  thus  far  failed  to 
suppress  it.  But,  moreover,  we  dare  not  abandon  it,  be- 
cause those  who  ridicule  it  in  reality  testify  in  its  favor. 
The  friends  of  what  is  known  as  "high-license"  defend 
their  position  by  claiming  that  the  measure  they  propose  is 
prohibitory  in  its  character,  and  is  calculated  to  retard  and 
not  to  advance  the  use  of  intoxicants.  Gail  Hamilton  thus 
expresses  this  view  as  held  by  herself  and  others: 

The  Government  lays  a  tax  on  the  saloons,  imposes  a  fine  upoq 
smugglers.  It  might  burn  the  saloons,  it  might  hang  the  smugglers, 
if  the  popular  sentiment  could  be  embodied  in  legislation  to  that 
effect.  Jf  it  did,  it  would  not  be  a  "  permit  "  to  the  saloons  and  the; 


HIGH    LICEXSE   AND    PROHIBITION.  311 

smugglers,  but  it  would  be  just  as  much  a  permit  as  it  is  under  the 
present  tax,  only  the  conditions  of  the  permit  would  be  a  little  harder, 
Yet  persons  who  profess  to  be  working  for  humanity  resist  the  at- 
tempt to  restrain  the  liquor-traffic  as  strenuously  as  if  it  were  an 
attempt  to  extend  it.  Misled  by  the  word  license,  which  is  a  term  of 
restriction,  they  combat  license  as  if  it  meant  non-restriction.  The 
Supreme  Court  of  Michigan  has  lately  rendered  a  decision  declaring 
that  "  the  imposition  of  a  tax  *  *  *  is  not  a  license  but 
a  restraint. 

Clearly  stated,  and  we  accept  the  definition,  though  our 
dictionaries  tell  us  that  "to  license  "  means  to  "  authorize," 
and  to  "  remove  restraint "  ;  yet  what  have  we  in  this  pecu- 
liar interpretation  but  a  quasi  endorsement  of  the  principle 
involved  in  prohibition  ?  High  license,  according  to  Gail 
Hamilton  and  others,  prohibits  within  prescribed  limits, 
and  "prohibition"  simply  does  the  same  thing,  only  with- 
out limits.  The  two  remedies  then  are  substantially  alike, 
the  difference  between  them  being  only  one  of  extent,  not 
of  principle.  Admitting  this  similarity,  if  not  identity, 
then  its  application  should  be  determined  by  the  preval- 
ence of  the  evil  it  is  designed  to  correct.  Of  course  the 
details  of  such  a  provision,  and  the  plans  for  its  execution 
may  deserve  to  be  characterized  as  Doctors  Lewis  and 
Crosby  characterize  the  provision  itself  ;  but  if  this  is  the 
case  it  merely  shares  with  all  other  reform  movements  in 
imperfections  which  time  and  thought  may  remedy.  We 
do  not  claim  that  it  is  all  that  it  ought  to  be  in  its  methods, 
terms,  and  requirements.  These  may  be  defective  or  not ; 
but  we  do  hold  its  fundamental  demand,  that  drunkard- 
making  as  a  business  shall  be  suppressed  and  annihilated, 
to  be  reasonable  and  just.  It  is  a  real  gain  to  know 
what  we  desire,  and  whither  we  are  journeying.  The 
aim  distinctly  stated  is  itself  an  education  of  the  people 
into  sympathy  with  it,  preparing  them  for  future  action 
and  for  the  adoption  of  measures  they  would  now  reject. 
Assuredly  prompt  steps  should  be  taken  to  suppress  the 


312  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

saloon.  Couquer  that  and  the  entire  cause  is  won.  A  thou- 
sand facts  have  proven  that  the  saloon  is  a  pest-house  breed- 
ing idleness,  viciousness  and  crime.  It  is  the  ante-chamber 
of  every  kind  of  iniquity  and  impurity.  As  well  tolerate 
Fagin's  den  for  the  manufacture  of  thieves  as  countenance 
for  a  moment  the  vile  stews  where  humanity  is  plundered, 
deformed  and  assassinated.  If  we  can  do  no  better,  di- 
minish their  number  by  that  peculiar  form  of  taxation, 
termed  "High  License."  But  remember  this  is  only  a  partial 
remedy.  It  leaves  untouched  many  liquor  palaces  which 
assume  airs  of  respectability  because  they  escape  the  fate  that 
befalls  others;  whereas  the  best  of  them,  in  spite  of  their 
rich  appointments  and  their  thin  veneer  of  gentility,  are 
thoroughly  disreputable,  and  demoralizing.  Shut  them  all 
up.  Give  them  to  the  owls  and  bats.  In  every  state  and 
in  every  land  a  law  should  be  enacted  forbidding  the  open- 
ing of  such  places,  and  on  the  same  grounds  as  it  forbids 
the  maintaining  of  lottery  offices  and  gambling  hells.  The 
dram  shop  makes  it  "hard  for  the  citizen  to  do  right," 
and  in  this  fact  lies  the  warrant  for  it  suppression.  Local 
option  is  preparing  the  way  for  the  passage  of  such  a  law. 
Communities  that  determine  for  themselves  that  they  will 
no  longer  be  afflicted  with  saloons  are  taking  the  lead  in 
this  great  social  revolution.  By  their  prosperity  and  their 
happiness  they  will  demonstrate  that  there  is  no  sufficient 
reason  why  any  such  plague-spots  should  be  permitted  to 
exist  anywhere.  They  will  intensify  public  sentiment 
against  them,  and  the  cry  will  come  up  from  the  people 
generally  for  their  utter  extermination.  Then  will  legis- 
lators without  regard  to  party  hasten  to  render  effective  by 
statute  what  the  popular  voice  demands.  In  this  direction 
every  sign  of  the  times  indicates  we  are  moving,  and  in  our 
judgment,  though  many  obstacles  may  yet  impede  our 
progress,  we  shall  assuredly  reach  the  goal.  The  question, 
how  far  for  mechanical  and  chemical  and  medicinal  pur- 


POSTUMIUS.  313 

poses  the  distillation  of  alcohol,  and  the  manufacture  of 
wines  may  with  safety  be  allowed,  can  only  be  determined 
by  the  future.  We  do  not  touch  upon  it  here:  we  merely 
appeal  to  the  friends  of  freedom  and  humanity  everywhere 
to  make  common  cause  against  this  most  dastardly  and 
terrible  of  all  the  tyrants — the  Saloon. 

When  the  old  Roman  Consul,  Postumius,  beheld  the 
young  of  the  Eternal  City  flushed  with  wine,  and  reeling 
from  the  public  abodes  of  licentiousness,  he  indignantly 
inquired:  "Can  ye  think  that  such  youths  are  fit  to  be 
made  soldiers?  That  wretches  brought  out  of  the  temple 
of  obscenity  could  be  trusted  with  arms?  That  those  con- 
taminated with  such  debaucheries  could  be  the  champions 
for  the  chastity  of  the  wives  and  children  of  the  Roman 
people  ?  "  Such  questions  carry  with  them  their  own  dark 
and  ominous  answers.  As  we  have  already  seen,  the  vices 
emasculate,  corrupt  and  deaden  the  soul,  and,  therefore, 
unfit  for  the  stern  responsibilities  of  freedom.  Such 
enervation  is  fatal  to  Republican  liberty,  and  must  inevit- 
ably lead  to  malignant  feuds,  alienations  and  wretchedness. 
Goldsmith  paints  a  sad  picture  in  the  plaintive  lines : 

To  see  ten  thousand  baneful  acts  combined 
To  pamper  luxury  and  thin  mankind; 
To  see  each  joy  the  sons  of  pleasure,  know 
Extorted  from  his  fellow-creatures'  woe. 

And  in  these  words  we  have  a  painful  description  of  the 
heartless  and  devastating  sway  of  Vice,  which  renders 
Society  the  habitation  of  human  deformities  and  monstros- 
ities. Are  such  things  as  these  to  be  trusted?  Must  not 
justice,  vigor,  purity,  honor  give  way  and  disappear,  if 
they  are  permitted  to  multiply  and  thrive?  Old  Postumius 
once  more  extends  his  hands  reproachingly  and  entreat- 
ingly  and  his  language  sounds  as  a  warning  to  the  people 
of  these  times.  Freedom,  Civilization,  Christianity  all  are 
being  imperiled  for  the  sake  of  maddening  dissipation, 


314  STUDIES   IK    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

and  are  being  trodden  under  the  feet  of  the  swine  of  Epi- 
curus. What  a  disgusting  mess  of  potage  are  we  also 
offered  in  exchange  for  blessings  and  privileges  well 
nigh  priceless.  If  anything  in  addition  to  the  dreary 
facts  presented  in  this  paper  is  necessary  to  rouse  every 
element  of  manhood  against  the  outrageous  usurpations  of 
iniquity,  it  is  surely  found  in  the  insane  bartering  of 
everything  worth  having  for  a  devil's  portion.  We  cannot 
believe  that  the  nation — that  the  race — will  continue  to  be 
oblivious  to  the  sacrifice  involved  in  such  a  reckless  trans- 
action. The  hour  of  wakening  must  arrive ;  but  we  are 
anxious  that  it  should  come  early.  Therefore,  by  these 
sacred  names — the  names  of  Freedom,  Civilization  and 
Christianity — and  by  all  that  is  glorious  in  the  past  and 
possible  in  the  future,  we  entreat  the  people  to  forsake  the 
temples  of  obscenity,  and  firmly  to  take  their  stand  on  the 
side  of  chastity,  temperance  and  integrity.  The  Egyptian 
priests  used  to  say  that  a  single  touch  with  the  wing  of 
their  sacred  bird  could  charm  the  crocodile  into  a  death- 
like torpor;  and  so,  the  touch  of  Virtue,  the  radiance  of  its 
presence  in  the  soul,  is  enough  to  lull  in  dreamless  sleep 
and  slay  the  serpent  brood  which  there,  too  long,  has 
writhed,  and  hissed  and  stung.  And  this  heavenly  Virtue 
comes  quicker  to  the  call  of  RESOLUTION  than  does  the 
dove  to  the  cooing  voice  of  love.  Eesolve  then,  invoke  the 
return  of  the  spirit  of  purity,  determine  to  be  enfranchised 
— that  is  all;  and  then  shall  Freedom,  Civilization  and 
Christianity  be  secure,  and  be  transmitted  with  all  their 
blessings  from  generation  to  generation. 

It  may  be  that  the  entire  army  of  saloonkeepers, 
black-legs  and  courtesans,  answer  our  appeal  with 
complaints  and  groans  over  the  ruin  which  it  promises 
to  bring  to  them.  "Our  interests,  our  property, 
our  prospects,"  very  likely  they  exclaim,  "areas  nothing 
in  the  sight  of  this  new  fanaticism!"  Not  far  from 


RUIN    AND    SALVATIOX.  315 

the  truth  is  this  apprehension.  Reform  does  mean  dis- 
aster to  those  whose  business  renders  it  necessary; 
but  at  the  same  time  it  is  disaster  not  without 
compensating  advantage.  It  is  related  of  the  wise 
Polybius  that  he  thought  so  despairingly  of  Grecian 
affairs  previous  to  the  Roman  conquest,  that  after  this 
event  was  accomplished  he  said  with  epigrammatic 
point:  "  Had  we  not  been  speedily  ruined,  we  should  not 
have  been  saved."  We  have  just  the  same  thing  to  say  to 
the  disreputable  army  as  it  moans  the  probable  loss  of 
plunder:  "If  you  are  not  speedily  ruined,  it  will  be  impos- 
sible to  save  you."  Everyone  'knows  you  are  pretty 
much  gone  to  the  bad  already.  Nobody  of  respectability 
would  giv«  much  for  your  character.  Your  very  wealth 
is  looked  on  with  suspicion  as  though  it  harbored  curses 
innumerable;  and  the  poorest  man  who  loves  purity  does 
not  envy  you  its  possession.  There  is  a  general  feeling 
that  it  is  blood-money,  and  that  it  is  sure  to  fail  the  owner 
in  time  of  need.  Few  liquor  peddlers,  and  fewer  gam- 
blers and  harlots  die  in  affluence,  and  those  who  do 
leave  behind  a  golden  malediction.  Is  it  not,  then,  ab- 
surd for  you  to  talk  of  being  ruined  by  the  triumph  of 
Virtue?  You  are  beggared  now,  pauperized  beyond  repair 
in  reputation,  and  tending  toward  inevitable  bankruptcy. 
What  you  profess  to  dread  is  the  very  thing  you  should 
covet.  What  you  really  need  is  just  the  very  kind  of  ruin 
you  deprecate;  for  only  by  the  speedy  destruction  of  your 
traffic,  whether  in  wine  or  women,  is  there  hope  of 
your  ever  being  saved  from  meanness,  heartlessness 
and  wretchedness,  and  from  the  shame  of  a  dishonored 
name,  a  despairing  death,  and  a  memory  accursed. 


YI 

THE  IMPOSITIONS  OF  SOCIETY. 

What  need  I  care?    I  cheat  in  self-defence, 

And  there's  my  answer  to  a  world  of  cheats! 

Cheat?    To  be  sure,  sir!    What's  the  world  worth  else? 

Who  takes  it  as  lie  finds,  and  thanks  his  stars? 

Don't  it  want  trimming,  turning,  furbishing  up 

And  polishing  over?    Your  so-styled  great  men, 

Do  they  accept  one  truth  as  truth  is  found, 

Or  try  their  skill  at  tinkering?    *    *    * 

Dealers  in  common  sense,  set  these  at  work, 

What  can  they  do  without  their  helpful  lies? 

******* 

Don't  let  truth's  lump  rot  stagnant  for  the  lack 

Of  a  timely  helpful  lie  to  leaven  it! 

Put  a  chalk  egg  beneath  the  clucking  hen, 

She'll  lay  a  real  one,  laudably  deceived, 

Daily  for  weeks  to  come. 

— Robert  Browning. 

IT  is  related  in  the  Gesta  Romanorum  that  a  man 
came  to  a  certain  gate  where  every  humpbacked, 
one-eyed  or  scald-headed  passenger  had  to  pay  a  penny 
for  each  infirmity,  and  that  when  the  officials  sought  to 
collect  the  toll  for  his  hunch  he  resisted,  and  in  the 
struggle  betrayed  the  fact  that  he  was  amenable  for  every 
deformity  specified  by  the  tariff.  "  All  the  ills  to  which 
flesh  is  heir"  afflicted  him.  He  had  carefully  disguised 
his  defects;  but  the  paddings,  the  stuffings,  the  wig,  the 
paint,  and  all  the  other  artifices  designed  to  conceal  were 
of  no  avail;  for  a  little  rough  handling  disclosed  the  trick 
and  held  him  up  to  mockery  as  a  sham  and  humbug. 
This  absurd,  crooked-back  cheat  is  an  appropriate  H- 

316 


SWINDLING   RAILROADS.  317 

lustration  of  the  Impositions  of  Society.  Like  him, 
Society  is  not  perfect,  nor  does  it  claim  to  be  free  from 
blemish.  Amiably  it  admits  the  hunch,  though  it  does 
not  relish  being  taxed  on  its  account,  and  stoutly  denies 
any  other  malformation  or  sore.  But  when  search  is 
instituted  the  painful  discovery  is  made  that  it  is  dis- 
torted, disfigured,  bandy-legged,  rickety  and  misshapen; 
or,  in  plainer  terms,  is  to  an  alarming  extent  dishonest, 
tricky,  unprincipled  and  cunning.  These  graceless  quali- 
ties it  attempts  to  hide  by  quackery,  shams  and  counter- 
feits, so  that  on  every  side  we  find  ourselves  confronted  and 
bewildered  by  simulation,  empiricism,  charlatanism,  and 
escamoterie. 

A  literary  friend  in  Paris  last  summer  handed  us  an 
extract  from  an  English  journal,  which  reads  as  follows  : 

From  a  statement  made  by  the  chairman  of  the  North  London 
Railway  it  appears  that  8,584  persons  had  attempted,  during  the  half 
year  ending  June  30,  1881,  to  defraud  the  company  by  traveling 
without  a  ticket,  or  by  riding  in  a  superior  carriage  to  that  for  which 
they  had  paid,  and  the  sum  total  of  the  payments  which  they  had 
tried  to  evade  was  only  £67,  or  less  than  twopence  each. 

Is  it  possible  that  8,584  persons  can  be  found  in  Eng- 
land who  are  willing  to  soil  their  conscience  at  the  rate  of 
twopence  apiece?  Conscience  is  certainly  not  a  high- 
priced  article  in  that  country,  if  we  may  be  allowed  to 
judge  from  the  report  of  the  honorable  chairman.  We 
are  suspicious  that  the  evil  which  he  exposes  is  widespread. 
He  speaks  for  one  railroad  company  only,  and  there  are 
many  others  who  doubtless  have  similar  experiences  to 
relate  ;  and  he  represents  only  one  business  interest,  and 
there  are  others  which,  very  likely,  have  to  mourn  over  the 
manifest  depravity  of  an  equal  number  of  depredators.  If 
the  statement  of  the  North  London  Railway  may  be  taken 
as  symptomatic,  as  we  fear  it  may,  how  tainted,  fly-blown 
and  gangrened  the  moral  sense  of  the  British  nation  has 


318  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE, 

become.  We  know  the  impression  prevails  that  Albion  is 
essentially  perfidious.  This  is  her  political  reputation  in 
the  four  corners  of  the  world.  It  is  said  of  her  that  she 
drives  straight  to  her  purpose  per  fas  et  nefas,  and  that  she 
conveniently  forgets  she  is  professedly  Christian  when 
dealing  wit!:,  subject  peoples.  And  now  comes  James 
Anthony  Froude  with  the  startling  declaration  that  railway 
corporations  themselves,  and  with  them  all  -sorts  of  trades 
and  callings,  are  as  far  gone  in  unscrupulousness  as  the 
politicians  or  the  general  public.  Here  is  his  indictment, 
copied  from  Short  Studies  of  Great  Subjects  (vol.  II,  p. 
195): 

Railway  companies,  banking  companies,  joint  stock  trading 
companies,  have  within  these  few  last  years  fallen  to  shameful  wreck, 
dragging  thousands  of  families  down  to  ruin.  The  investigation  into 
the  causes  of  these  failures  has  brought  out  transactions  which  make 
ordinary  people  ask  whither  English  honesty  has  gone.  Yet  there 
has  l>een  no  adequate  punishment  of  the  principal  offenders,  nor  does 
any  punishment  seem  likely  to  be  arrived  at.  The  silk  trade  is  said 
to  be  in  a  bad  way,  and  the  fault  is  laid  on  the  French  treaty.  It 
was  shown  a  year  or  two  since  that  fifty  per  cent  of  hemp  was  worked 
up  into  English  silk!  *  *  *  It  was  proved  in  the  Lancet,  after  a 
series  of  elaborate  investigations,  that  the  smaller  retail  trade  through- 
out the  country  was  soaked  with  falsehood  through  and  through. 
Scarcely  one  article  was  sold  in  the  shops  frequented  by  the  poor 
which  was  really  the  thing  that  it  pretended  to  be. 

These  representations  are  not  reproduced  here  in  a 
censorious  or  hostile  spirit.  We  have  none  but  the  kind- 
liest feelings  for  the  motherland.  But  it  is  due  to  America 
that  it  should  be  distinctly  pointed  out,  that  however  grave 
her  faults  may  be  in  this  direction,  she  is  far  from  being 
the  only  offender.  There  is  a  belief,  especially  popular  in 
Europe,  that  the  citizens  of  tins  republic  are  given  to  ter- 
giversation, which  is  a  polite  word  for  trickery  and  evasion, 
and  that  among  them  this  art  has  been  carried  to  a  higher 
degree  of  perfection  than  elsewhere.  This  discrimination 


UNSUSPECTING   HUMANITY.  319 

we  resent.  The  evidence  we  have  already  cited  proves  that 
it  is  not  for  England  to  cast  the  first  stone,  and  our  obser- 
vation of  trade  in  other  European  countries  satisfies  us  that 
they  had  all  better  leave  the  stoning  business  alone.  They 
are  none  of  them  without  sin.  They  are  afflicted  with  just 
as  many  shrewd,  cunning,  manceuvering,  conscienceless 
individuals  as  we  are.  While  this  much  may  be  said  in 
behalf  of  America,  it  is  not  designed  to  hide  her  culpa- 
bility. Her  people,  if  no  worse  than  others,  are  no  better, 
and  she,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  needs  to 
know  how  much  of  sham  and  legerdemain  enter  into  her 
affairs.  Willful  ignorance  on  this  subject  is  injurious.  It 
not  only  adds  another  deception  to  the  many  we  suffer  from, 
but  blinds  to  their  pernicious  influence,  and  so  hands  us 
over  unresistingly  to  their  corrupting  and  destroying 
power. 

Human  nature  is  easily  imposed  on.  It  trusts  where  it 
ought  to  doubt,  and  while  it  believes  the  greater  portion  of 
the  race  is  liable  to  deception,  it  requires  much  stubborn 
evidence  to  convince  its  individual  members  that  they  are 
in  danger.  This  marvelous  self-confidence  is  unquestion- 
ably due  to  an  abnormal  kind  of  normal  vanity ;  for  it 
seems  natural  to  men  to  be  unnaturally  satisfied  with  their 
powers  of  discernment,  and  to  regard  it  as  next  to  impos- 
sible for  any  one  to  delude  them.  And  yet,  while  they 
stand  looking  smart  and  knowing,  occasionally  censuring 
those  who  are  not  wide  enough  awake  to  detect  cheats, 
and  exhibiting  an  assurance  of  manner  which  suggests  that 
Gibralter  is  not  more  strongly  fortified  against  enemies  than 
they  are,  they  are  being  poisoned  by  adulterated  food,  and 
are  being  dexterously  fleeced  on  all  sides.  What  is  even 
more  remarkable,  many  who  have  acquired  wealth  "  by 
ways  that  are  dark  and  tricks  that  are  vain,"  are  as  oblivi- 
ous apparently  to  retaliatory  measures  as  though  they  were 
themselves  innocent  of  any  kind  of  sharp  dealing.  They 


320  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

are  perhaps  of  all  others  the  most  surprised,  indignant  and 
outraged  when  they  discover  that  they  themselves  have 
been  victimized.  Language  fails  them ;  they  take  to  de- 
nunciations ;  or,  if  they  are  piously  inclined,  they  "wonder 
what  the  world  is  coming  to,"  and  conclude  that  the  doc- 
trine of  depravity  is  unfortunately  too  true.  The  ease  with 
which  imposture  succeeds,  and  our  liability  to  be  duped, 
may  be  inferred  from  the  number  of  transparent  frauds  and 
humbugs  which  seek  publicity,  and  which  must  have  a 
market.  Take  this  instance  of  our  meaning  from  the  pen 
of  an  eastern  correspondent : 

There  is  an  average  in  Boston  of  three  "spiritual  inejums"  to 
every  street.  The  charges  are  from  $1  to  $3  per  sitting,  with  the 
chances  of  a  chat  with  Aristotle,  Plato,  Cicero  or  Ben  Franklin.  If 
you  think  you  get  your  money's  worth,  why  you  do.  It  is  ever  so 
nice  not  only  to  receive  consoling  messages  from  departed  friends, 
but  to  be  told  every  time  you  go  what  a  wonderful  and  good  fellow 
you  are  and  how  the  world  is  just  going  back  on  itself  and  discount- 
ing itself  at  the  rate  of  twenty  per  cent  a  minute  in  not  recognizing 
and  accepting  you  for  what  you  really  are,  especially  when  the 
"mejuin"  is  a  young  and  pretty  woman,  and  in  the  "  trance  condi- 
tion" takes  your  hand  in  hers  and  calls  you  her  "dear  brother"  for 
an  hour  or  more,  and  sends  you  off  home  in  a  beatific  condition  from 
the  story  told  of  what  wonderful  things  you  are  going  to  do  when  you 
are  "developed." 

There  are  also  "Soothsayers/'  "Seventh  daughters  of 
a  seventh  daughter,"  "Astrologers,"  and  "Medicine 
Men,"  and  "  Medicine  Women,"  too,  who  can  do  all  sorts 
of  startling  things,  and  who  must  enjoy  considerable 
patronage  to  maintain  them.  We  have  all  heard,  and  the 
trick  is  repeated  almost  daily,  of  good-looking,  good-for- 
nothing  youths,  with  greasy  hair  and  affected  manners,  in 
some  quarters  supposed  to  be  indisputable  signs  of  Euro- 
pean aristocracy,  passing  themselves  off  as  lords  and  nobles, 
and  succeeding,  under  various  pretenses,  in  transferring 
lots  of  money  from  the  pockets  of  stern,  peerage-hating 


MARRIAGE  BUREAUS.  321 

republicans  to  their  own.  Some  of  these  showy  and  attract- 
ive fictions  even  go  further,  and  manage  to  entrap  unsus- 
picious girls,  whose  democratic  principles  are  not  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  resist  the  fascinations  of  a  title.  And 
this  recalls  a  most  manifest  piece  of  humbuggery,  to 
which  our  attention  was  drawn  in  Europe,  and  which  has 
been  imitated  after  a  fashion  in  this  country.  It  is  in  the 
form  of  an  advertisement,  and  reads  and  appears  in  this 
way : 

MARRIAGES. — Several  Princes,  Dukes,  Counts,  Viscounts,  wish 
to  marry  rich  American  Young  Ladies.  Write  in  the  first  instance  in 
all  confidence  to  Mme.  La  Baronne  d'Emily,  care  of  the  "American 
Register,"  2  Rue  Scribe,  Paris. 

Naturally  we  asked,  after  looking  over  this  "  ad,"  as 
the  printers  would  call  it,  can  it  be  that  there  is  a  demand 
on  the  part  of  rich  young  American  ladies  for  such  articles 
of  domestic  furniture  as  dukes  and  counts  ?  And  if  there 
is,  can  they  really  believe  they  can  be  purchased,  and  at 
prices  proportionate  to  their  rank  ?  If  they  do,  it  reveals 
a  stupendous  amount  of  credulity,  and  if  they  do  not,  why 
does  the  amiable  Baronne  d'Emily  take  such  pains,  and  go 
to  such  expense  as  she  must  when  types  and  printers  are 
enlisted  to  herald  her  beneficent  mission  to  mankind  ? 
We  are  afraid  we  must  conclude  that  she  has  reason  for 
supposing  that  there  are  enough  silly,  sentimental,  and 
gushing  females  in  America  who  are  ready  to  be  gulled  to 
afford  her  an  ample  support.  She  drives  a  trade  at  the 
expense  of  those  who  are*  already  prepared  to  be  deceived. 
Her  enterprise,  as  we  have  intimated,  has  not  been  without 
copyists  in  this  "home  of  the  free,"  although  it  has  not 
been  pushed  to  the  extent  of  offering  for  sale  live  princes 
and  nobles.  This,  however,  may  arise  from  a  laudable 
patriotism,  which  recognizes  the  Constitutional  provision 
against  titles,  and  which  it  cannot  be  expected  that  d'Emily, 
surrounded  as  she  must  be  with  counts  and  viscounts, 
31 


322  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

should  at  all  take  account  of.  In  this  land  we  are  more 
unpretentious.  We  have  matrimonial  bureaus,  where  the 
solitary  of  either  sex,  for  $3,  can  be  brought  into  relations 
with  eligible  companions.  A  year  ago  the  Times  gave  a 
telegraphic  report  of  such  an  institution  in  New  York,  and 
during  November  (23,  1882)  the  Tribune  published  the 
operations  of  a  similar  establishment  in  Chicago.  We 
have,  of  course,  no  way  of  estimating  the  amount  of  busi- 
ness transacted  by  these  concerns,  but  we  must  suppose  it 
to  be  sufficient  to  justify  their  existence,  and  the  fact  that 
they  have  patrons  at  all  should  satisfy  us  that  human 
nature  is  essentially  credulous,  and  should  constantly  be 
put  upon  its  guard  against  the  quackery,  stratagems,  am- 
buscades and  misrepresentations  by  which  it  is  hoaxed, 
befooled  and  betrayed. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  lately  on  the  subject  of 
adulteration,  and  if  we  may  believe  what  is  reported,  we 
are  daily  swallowing  an  immense  amount  of  trash  which 
must  impair  and  deteriorate  health.  Chalk  cannot  improve 
the  quality  of  milk,  neither  can  water  add  to  its  nourishing 
properties.  Tea  that  has  been  dyed  or  colored  with  a 
preparation  of  copperas,  or  coffee  that  has  been  brought 
into  unnatural  fellowship  with  chicory,  may  be  as  palatable 
to  the  taste,  but  cannot  be  as  advantageous  to  the  body. 
Sugar  that  is  charged  with  pulverized  tombstones,  and 
butter  that  is  made  out  of  fatty  refuse  from  the  slaughter- 
houses, and  genuine  olive  oil  manufactured  from  any  and 
every  other  kind  of  oil  except  the  olive,  may  not  prove 
very  disastrous,  but  they  must  fail  to  convince  that  the 
milleninm  is  near  at  hand.  In  Switzerland  they  give 
honey  which  the  bee  has  never  hived;  and  at  Chester  we 
called  once  for  Cheshire  cheese,  a  cheese  -peculiar  to  that 
part  of  England,  and  when  we  had  partaken  with  infinite 
relish,  to  our  disgust  we  were  told  by  the  waiter  that  it  was 
imported  from  America.  But  these  petty  cheats  were  harm- 


CHICAGO   STOCK   YARDS.  323 

less,  save  to  their  perpetrators,  while  those  which  we  have 
hastily  specified,  and  others  like  them,  are  injurious  both  to 
the  seller  and  buyer,  damaging  the  morals  of  the  one  and 
impairing  the  health  of  the  other.  An  instance  of  this,  to 
which  attention  has  been  called  by  the  Tribune,  deserves 
to  be  particularly  noticed.  A  short  time  since  that  jour- 
nal directed  attention  to  the  traffic  in  diseased  meat,  and 
makes  this  astounding  and  alarming  statement : 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  Chicago  stock  yards  are  the  receptacle 
of  countless  thousands  of  pregnant,  maimed,  diseased  and  dying  ani- 
mals, which  are  as  quickly  as  possible  after  arrival  served  to  our  peo- 
ple as  food.  Some  pretense  at  inspection  has  been  made,  but  those 
who  are  acquainted  with  the  inner  workings  of  the  traffic  know  this 
inspection  is  but  a  farce,  intended  to  give  a  false  sense  of  security, 
while  it  may  be  made  to  line  the  purses  of  the  chief  performers. 

Having  suggested  some  measures  against  the  evils  of 
which  the  article  complains,  the  paper  continues  : 

Under  such  an  arrangement  those  who  bring  to  market  superan- 
uated  and  sickly  old  cows,  ancient  bulls  tottering  on  the  verge  of  dis- 
solution, oxen  which  a  generation  ago  should  have  retired  from  active 
service  covered  with  well-earned  laurels  as  they  are  now  with  bruises 
and  galls,  animals  bearing  hideous  ulcers,  exuding  horrible  matter, 
agonized  brutes  with  flesh  half  cooked  by  burning  fever  from  broken 
bones — all  the  dregs  of  a  vast  traffic,  in  short,  would  receive  therefor 
its  full  value,  probably  more  than  they  now  get,  for  the  ghouls  who 
now  fatten  at  the  expense  of  their  fellows  would  then  be  cut  off  from 
following  their  infamous  calling. 

Such  an  account  as  this  is  almost  enough  to  make  us 
forswear  the  use  of  animal  food  entirely,  and  to  convert  us 
to  vegetarianism.  It  is  enough  to  shake  our  confidence 
in  the  integrity  and  trustworthiness  of  human  nature.  If 
it  is  even  proximately  accurate,  in  what  a  heartless,  savage 
age  we  live,  when  men  can  consent  to  grow  rich  by  selling 
flesh  afflicted  with  tuberculosis,  cancer  or  tumor,  and  know- 
ing that  by  so  doing  they  are  imparting  these  terrible 
diseases  to  their  fellow-beings.  No  wonder,  when  such 


324  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

reports  are  circulated  here  at  home  that  France  and  Ger- 
many should  be  suspicious  of  our  meat  products,  and  should 
shut  their  ports  against  them.  If  dealers  in  provisions  at 
times  disgrace  their  calling  by  such  nefarious  practices,  we 
may  well  believe  that  the  men  who  trade  in  liquor,  a  trade 
which  derives  the  bulk  of  its  support  from  the  worst  classes 
of  the  community,  and  which  is  associated  with  crime  and 
debauchery,  do  not  hesitate  to  debase  and  poison  the  articles 
which  they  handle.  Nor  is  this  merely  an  inference.  The 
venerable  Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott  has  shown  very  clearly  that 
"  in  London  alone  more  port  wine  is  drunk  than  is  fur- 
nished by  the  entire  vintage  at  Oporto;  and  yet  London  sup- 
plies the  whole  civilized  world  with  port."  Then  the 
citizens  of  America  may  thoughtfully  ask  what  they  are 
drinking  when  they  profess  to  be  indulging  in  this  delicious 
beverage.  They  may  find  an  answer  to  their  question  in 
the  following  interesting  extract  from  a  Chicago  paper  : 

A  Paris  dispatch  to  the  London  Standard  says:  "In  1881 
there  were  3,001  samples  analyzed,  the  result  being  that  279  were 
found  to  be  good,  991  passable,  and  1,781  bad;  while  in  the  first 
five  months  of  1882  there  were  1,869  samples  analyzed,  of  which  372 
were  good,  683  passable,  and  814  bad,  145  of  the  latter  being  ve*y 
injurious."  It  is  said  that  a  liquid  is  largely  sold  for  wine  which  is 
manufactured  of  water,  vinegar  and  logwood,  with  a  tenth  part  of 
common  wine  from  the  south  of  France  to  cover  up  the  fraud.  The 
same  dispatch  says:  "Not  only  is  wine  falsified  by  adding  cider, 
molasses,  sugar,  tartaric  acid  or  tanuic  acid,  sulphuric  acid,  lime, 
alum,  bitter  almonds,  leaves  of  the  cherry,  laurel,  etc.,  but  it  is  largely 
manufactured  without  the  slightest  pretense  of  being  associated  with 
the  empe."  It  is  well  for  the  admirers  of  French  wines  to  know 
A  nnt  French  wines  are. 

Recently  a  Xew  York  paper  has  conducted  with  the 
aid  of  chemists  an  interesting  investigation  of  the  beer 
which  is  so  generally  used  by  the  people.  A  St.  Paul 
journal  reports  on  the  matter  and  comments  in  these 
terms: 


LIQUOlt  ADULTERATION.  325 

It  appears  that  cheratta  root,  rhamomile  flowers,  gentian,  quassia 
and  aloes  have  all  risen  from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent  in  price;  but 
several  drug  importers  in  New  York  do  not  think  that  many  brewers 
use  cocculus  indicus  and  nux  vomica,  which  are  very  injurious. 
The  doctors  say  that  the  use  of  tannin  or  aloes  in  excess  is  serious, 
while  the  use  of  iiux  vomica  is  very  dangerous,  and  declare  that  any 
brewer  found  guilty  of  adulterating  his  beer  with  it  ought  to  be 
prosecuted  as  a  criminal.  An  excess  of  bicarbonate  of  soda,  which 
some  brewers  are  said  to  use  to  produce  foam  in  beer,  because 
customers  prefer  it  to  beer  that  does  not  foam,  is  harmful.  One 
German  doctor  told  the  reporter  that  he  would  advise  any  healthy 
man  to  drink  good  imported  German  lager  beer,  but  he  couldn't  pre- 
scribe the  stuff  which  is  made  in  this  country.  Another  doctor  said 
that  many  Germans  were  unable  long  to  stand  the  drinking  of 
American  beer.  It  gave  them  headache,  stomachache  and  many 
other  aches.  It  brings  on  all  kinds  of  trouble,  from  kidney  disease 
to  dropsy  and  fatty  degeneration  of  the  organs.  All  this,  however, 
has  reference  to  the  wicked  New  York  brewers.  Just  what  the  west- 
ern manufacturers  of  lager  beer  are  doing — if  anything — to  deteriorate 
the  quality  of  their  products  cannot  even  be  inferred,  although  there 
is  a  vast  multitude  of  people  who  have  a  practical  as  well  as  theoreti- 
cal interest  in  finding  out.  Or  would  they  rather  not? 

We  think  it  is  very  likely  that  they  would  prefer  to 
remain  in  ignorance;  and  it  is  questionable  whether  they 
would  believe  were  specific  charges  brought  against  the 
western  dealer  and  fully  substantiated.  We  shall  not  go 
into  the  inquiry  therefore.  We  know  that  drink  in  Chi- 
cago maddens,  degrades  and  prostrates  as  promptly  and 
effectually  as  in  New  York;  that  it  commits  as  many 
crimes  and  leads  to  as  much  sorrow;  and  consequently 
we  are  warranted  in  believing  that  it  is  as  fatally 
"doctored"  in  the  one  place  as  in  the  other.  Think 
of  it,  ye  habitual  topers  ;  realize  it,  ye  guzzlers  and 
swillers  of  oceanic  draughts,  what  a  common  sewer  ye  are 
making  of  your  bodies,  what  a  cesspool  receptacle  ye  are 
making  of  your  stomachs,  into  .what  a  madhouse  ye  are 
converting  your  intellects,  and  into  what  a  dumb,  blind, 
driveling  thing  ye  are  changing  your  consciences,  by  the 


326  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

liquid  death,  fermenting  poison  and  fluid  filth  which  you 
impoverish  yourselves  and  beggar  your  families  to  pro- 
cure. Oh,  while  there  is.  an  opportunity,  if  not  alto- 
gether too  late,  at  least  thrust  away  this  adulteration, 
which  of  all  others  is  the  most  fatal  to  your  happiness  and 
welfare. 

But  there  are  other  forms  of  imposition  than  those  of 
adulteration,  which,  perhaps,  need  not  be  separately  class- 
ified, though  they  should  be  noticed  and  rebuked.  For 
instance,  there  are  tricks  of  trade  which  do  not  involve 
any  alteration  for  the  worse  of  the  articles  sold,  but  which 
are  just  as  contemptible.  Dishonest  balances  may  rarely 
be  found,  but  carelessness  in  weighing,  by  which  the  custo- 
mer gets  less  than  he  pays  for,  is  not  uncommon.  It  is 
said  that  at  our  stock  yards  there  is  an  order  of  men  called 
"  shrinkers,"  whose  business  it  is  to  see  that  the  shippers 
of  hogs  get  less  money  than  their  drove  ought  to  bring. 
When  the  hogs  are  driven  on  the  scales  to  be  weighed, 
these  men,  or  at  least  some  of  them,  it  is  reported,  in  an 
arbitrary  way  announce  the  "shrinkage"  which  is  to  be 
"docked, "and  thus  enrich  their  employer  at  the  expense 
of  the  farmer;  a  species  of  chicanery,  which  recalls  the 
case  of  an  eastern  carpet  dealer,  who  acquired  the  reputa- 
tion of  giving  scant  measure,  and  who  knew  how  to  charge 
for  more  yards  than  were  needed  to  cover  any  house  he 
furnished.  These  are  despicable  arts  ;  but  unhappily  they 
are  matched  by  that  lack  of  thoroughness  and  honesty 
which  characterizes  much  of  the  work  that  is  done  in 
various  departments  of  industry.  The  stitches  of  many 
tailors  come  out  almost  as  fast  as  they  are  put  in,  and  the 
cloth  which  has  so  superfine  a  finish  often  comes  to  an 
untimely  end.  Some  dressmakers,  like  some  tailors,  are  of 
easy  conscience,  and  use  of  costly  material  for  a  lady's 
robe  as  much  as  would  be  required  to  clothe  the  huge  pro- 
portions of  the  Kentucky  giantess.  Sewer  builders  and 


FRAUDS   I2f   ARCHITECTURE.  327 

plumbers  do  not  enjoy  a  very  savory  name,  for  not  a  few  of 
their  craft  compromise  the  rest  by  the  way  they  slight  their 
work.  What  they  do  is  out  of  sight,  and  hence  the  temp- 
tation is  great  to  put  in  inferior  and  inadequate  pipes,  to 
fail  in  making  proper  connections,  and  in  a  word,  to  luvvc 
an  eye  to  future  business  when  attending  to  that  of  the 
present.  In  this  weakness,  however,  they  are  not  alone. 
Whenever  anything  is  wrought  which  is  not  constantly 
visible,  there  comes  the  inducement  to  perpetrate  soine 
kind  of  cheat.  We  remember  a  row  of  houses  in  Boston 
whose  foundations  gave  way;  and  we  have  seen  walls  go 
up  there  and  elsewhere  which  would  not  require  "the 
great  wind  from  the  wilderness,"  described  by  Job,  to 
overthrow.  A  friend  purchased  an  eider-down  skirt  in 
London  from  an  established  and  leading  dry  goods 
house,  and  her  distrustful  maid  ripped  the  sewing  and 
found  a  cheap  preparation  of  cotton  inside.  But  there 
are  impositions  which  are  not  the  outgrowth  of  dishon- 
est purpose,  and  which,  if  they  do  not  seriously  injure 
the  morals,  do  the  taste  of  Society.  Some  of  these  con- 
sist in  base  imitations,  and  others  in  disguising  material 
of  mean  nature  with  the  appearance  of  that  which  is  of 
more  value.  Mock  jewelry,  sham  diamonds,  and  the 
thousand  and  one  shoddy  articles  which  are  in  use  belong 
to  this  class.  But,  perhaps,  nowhere  is  it  more  deploy 
able  than  in  masonry.  We  have  good,  honest  brick  churches 
painted  to  resemble  stone,  which  are  thus  made  ashamed 
of  themselves;  and  we  have  all  kinds  of  pretentious  build- 
ings which  in  their  conspicuous  parts  -are  of  granite  or 
marble,  and  which  in  their  obscure  portions  are  composed 
of  some  inferior  material.  We  sympathize  with  Ruskin  in 
his  horror  of  the  unreal  and  false  in  architecture.  We 
don't  like  a  meeting-house  with  an  elegant  and  massive 
facade,  and  with  walls  that  are  out  of  harmony;  we  don't 
like  %  club  house  which  spoils  the  integrity  of  the  struct- 


328  STUDIES  IX  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

ure  by  putting  soft,  cheap  brick  in  the  back  elevation.     A 
poet  has  said  : 

They  make  the  front  just  like  St.  Paul's, 

Or  like  Westminister  Abbey, 
And  then,  as  if  to  cheat  the  Lord, 

They  leave  the  back  part  shabby. 

Of  course  neither  God  nor  man  is  deceived  by  these 
incongruities;  neither  may  their  authors  intend  to  deceive, 
but  they  are  pernicious  nevertheless.  They  educate  all  who 
grow  up  near  them  in  the  deleterious  belief  that  what  is 
not  seen  may  be  slighted,  that  mongrel  architecture  is  al- 
lowable, and  that  shams  which  are  skillfully  disguised  are 
not,  after  all,  such  terrible  affairs,  and  in  other  departments 
of  work  may  be  as  harmless  as  in  building.  Much  more 
wholesome  and  admirable,  and  even  profitable,  in  every 
way,  the  course  pursued  by  a  young  mechanic  whose 
"  immense  capacity  for  taking  trouble/'  as  Carlyle  would 
term  it,  is  recorded  in  the  following  brief  narrative,  which 
we  copy  from  a  New  York  journal : 

A  prominent  judge,  living  near  Cincinnati,  wishing  to  have  a 
rough  fence  built,  sent  for  a  carpenter  and  said  to  him: 

' '  I  want  this  fence  mended  to  keep  out  the  cattle.  There  are 
some  unplaued  boards — use  them.  It  is  out  of  sight  from  the  house, 
so  you  need  not  take  time  to  make  it  a  neat  job.  I  will  only  pay  you 
a  dollar  and  a  half." 

However,  afterward,  the  judge  coming  to  look  at  the  work,  found 
that  the  boards  were  planed  and  the  fence  finished  with  exceeding 
neatness.  Supposing  the  young  man  had  done  it  in  order  to  make  a 
costly  job  of  it,  he  said,  angrily  : 

1 '  I  told  you  this  fence  was  to  be  covered  with  vines.  I  do  not 
care  how  it  looks." 

"  I  do,"  said  the  carpenter.    ' 

"  How  much  do  you  charge? "  asked  the  judge. 

"A  dollar  and  a  half,"  said  the  man  shouldering  his  tools. 

"  Why  did  you  spend  all  that  labor  on  the  job,  if  not  for 
money  ?  " 

"For  the  job,  sir," 


COMMERCIAL    IMPROBITY.  329 

"  Nobody  would  have  seen  the  poor  work  on  it." 

"  But  /should  have  known  it  was  there.  No ;  I'll  take  only  the 
dollar  and  a  half."  And  he  took  it  and  went  away. 

Ten  years  afterward  the  judge  had  a  contract  to  give  for  the 
building  of  certain  magnificent  public  buildings.  There  were  many 
applicants  among  master-builders,  but  one  face  attracted  attention.  It 
was  that  of  the  man  who  had  built  the  fence. 

"  I  knew,"  said  the  judge,  after  telling  the  story,  "we  should 
have  only  good,  genuine  work  from  him.  I  gave  him  the  contract, 
and  it  made  a  rich  man  of  him," 

This  examination  would  be  unpardonably  defective 
were  we  to  pass  by  a  class  of  impositions  which,  though 
having  much  in  common  with  the  instances  already  cited, 
differs  from  them  in  audacity,  far-reaching  rascality  and 
unconscionable  cunning.  We  refer  to  those  peculiar  oper- 
ations carried  on  in  the  world  of  finance,  which  have  for 
their  special  end  the  plundering  of  the  government  treas- 
ury or  the  pockets  of  the  confiding  people.  The  names  of 
Edward  E.  Shaw,  Levi  D.  Jarrard,  Angler  Chase,  James 
D.  Fish,  Ward  and  others  of  the  same  stripe,  indicate  in 
what  direction  we  would  have  our  readers  look.  On  the 
close  of  1885  the  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat  published  an 
instructive  and  melancholy  article  on  the  swindlers  of 
monetary  institutions.  It  gave  their  names,  the  amounts 
they  had  embezzled,  their  history  and  the  term  of  their 
imprisonment.  From  this  article  we  learn  that  there  are 
upward  of  one  hundred  persons  in  fifteen  of  our  peniten- 
tiaries who  have  defrauded  or  wrecked  banks  or  misap- 
priated  trust-funds.  These,  however,  are  only  the 
greater  and  more  respectable  offenders;  for  we  learn  from 
the  same  source  that  there  are  some  one  hundred  and  fifty 
others  incarcerated  whose  stealings  have  been  compara- 
tively trifling.  But  when  we  remember  that  there  are 
penitentiaries  not  heard  from  in  the  Globe's  report,  and 
that  very  likely  there  are  multitudes  of  defaulters  and 
rogues  not  yet  exposed,  we  may  form  an  idea  of  the  im- 


330  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

probity  and  knavishness  which  disgrace  many  commercial 
enterprises  and  which  tend  to  render  us  suspicious  of  men 
and  of  corporations  whose  integrity  and  honor  are 
really  beyond  reproach.  A  pamphlet  entitled  Great 
Fortunes  and  Discontented  Labor  increases  this  distrust 
by  furnishing  the  public  with  an  insight  into  the  manage- 
ment of  vast  corporations  which  are  made  to  enrich  a 
few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  One  extract  from  this 
trenchant  economical  tract  will  suffice  to  show  how  little 
security  there  really  is  in  many  bits  of  printed  paper  which 
pass  for  "securities": 

As  au  example  of  some  of  the  things  complained  of — A  given 
railroad  or  telegraph  line  would  cost,  honestly  built  and  equipped, 
say  $10,000,000.  The  "promoters"  get  an  act  of  incorporation,  and 
issue  the  stock  to  themselves,  "  full  paid,"  but  not  paid  for  at  all.  A 
franchise  of  enormous  value  to  them,  and  sometimes  of  hurt  to  others, 
has  been  acquired.  The  stock  not  being  paid  for  the  road  must  be 
built  with  money  raised  on  mortgage.  The  directors  organize  them- 
selves into  a  "  Construction  Company,"  or  a  "  Credit  Mobilier,"  and 
get  a  contract  for  themselves,  to  themselves,  to  build  the  road  for 
$15,000,000,  and  that  amount  of  bonds  must  be  issued,  or  more  if  sold 
at  a  discount.  The  "Construction  Company,"  that  is,  the  directors 
of  the  railroad  company,  pocket  $5,000,000  profit.  In  a  few  years 
when  repairs  and  a  few  unimportant  additions  have  been  made  and 
paid  for  out  of  the  earnings,  the  watering-hose  is  turned  on;  another 
$10,000,000  of  stock  is  issued,  and  charged  to  "Construction  Ac- 
count," or  some  other  road  is  leased,  and  the  value  of  the  lease  is 
"  represented  "  by  the  additional  stock;  though  the  lease  was  in  con- 
sideration of  payments  or  guarantees  that  more  than  represent  its 
value.  Now  this  company  has  a  perfect  right,  if  it  can  find  the 
business,  to  make  and  declare  a  fair  dividend  on  $10,000,000.  But 
we  now  have  $35,000,000  of  bonds  and  stock  for  which  interest  and 
dividends  must  be  provided.  Who  provides  them?  The  robbed  and 
plundered  people  who  are  "  served  "  by  the  company'.  Six  per  cent 
on  the  fraudulent  $25,000,000  levies  a  tribute  of  $1,500,000  per  annum 
on  the  people.  This  thing  in  substance,  not  in  this  precise  form,  nor 
in  these  precise  figures,  is  going  on  all  the  time,  all  over  the  country. 

Comment  on  this  state  of  affairs  would  be  superfluous,, 


STEALING    PUBLIC    LANDS.  .'331 

and  would  undoubtedly  prove  exceedingly  offensive  to 
some  exalted  people,  who  are  courted  by  exclusive  circles, 
and  who  boast  of  their  aristocratic  family.  We  shall  not 
chafe  them  by  enlarging  on  the  subject;  for  they  can 
readily  imagine  how  extensively  such  expressions  as  "  double 
dealing/'  "trickery,"  "breach  of  faith,"  "unfairness," 
would  enter  into  any  criticism  of  ours.  But  in  view  of  this 
disreputable  scheming  we  ought  not  to  be  surprised  at  the 
discoveries  recently  made  of  gigantic  land  frauds,  perpe- 
trated by  the  same  class  of  speculators.  The  "  manipula- 
tion "  or  "  watering  "  of  stock  prepares  us  to  expect  the 
confiscation  of  the  public  domain  by  any  who  can  lay 
hands  on  it  successfully.  A  chevalier  d' Industrie  in 
France  is  not  very  particular  what  he  grabs;  neither  is  he 
in  America  providing  the  booty  is  worth  an  effort.  And 
that  it  is  in  this  case  may  be  gathered  from  Commissioner 
Sparks'  report,  which  the  Chicago  Tribune  substantially 
reproduces,  and  which  we  quote  here: 

The  report  of  the  commissioner  of  the  general  land  office  sums 
up  a  general  list  of  land  frauds  and  presents  the  astounding  total  of 
10,000,000  acres  illegally  seized  by  railroads,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
tracts  secured  by  cattle  companies  and  others  engaged  in  the  spolia- 
tion of  the  public  domain.  It  has  been  a  matter  of  general  notoriety 
that  frauds  of  this  character  were  carried  on  systematically  for  many 
years,  but  still  few  were  prepared  for  the  assertion  that  the  govern- 
ment had  been  tricked  and  swindled  out  of  10,000,000  acres  by  the 
railroads  alone.  The  land  grabbers  appear  to  have  had  full  swing, 
while  the  government  and  the  settlers  had  no  rights  to  be  defended. 
The  land-sharks  seized  large  tracts  under  fraudulent  titles,  or  with 
none  at  all,  and  then  patrolled  the  country  with  armed  cowboys,  and 
in  some  instances  secured  the  help  of  the  United  States  army  to  drive 
off  honest  settlers. 

Now  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  most  of  the  men  con- 
cerned in  this  "  public  land  robbery  "  are  persons  of  high 
social  standing,  some  of  them  attendants  on  churches  and 
that  defection  from  the  strict  law  of  probity  on  their  part 


332  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

must  be  indicative  of  a  very  loose  conception  of  moral 
obligation  generally.  Undoubtedly  the  inference  is  fair, 
and  what  can  be  more  alarming  than  for  a  nation  to  become 
mere  phantasms  of  honesty  and  despicable  worshipers  of 
shams? 

Naturally  we  are  impelled  by  these  reflections  to  think 
of  the  worst  form  of  the  evil  we  are  studying — the  mere- 
tricious, the  artificial  and  the  insincere  in  character. 
These  contemptible  qualities  are  met  with  in  every  circle, 
and  display  themselves  in  the  drawing-room,  in  the  club, 
in  the  political  canvass  and  the  religious  meeting.  Du- 
plicity genteel  and  refined,  elegant  and  devout,  exhibits 
itself  side  by  side  with  duplicity  low  and  coarse,  rude  and 
blasphemous.  The  infidel  in  his  zeal  to  make  good  his 
cause  may  say  far  more  than  his  convictions  warrant,  and 
the  minister  may  be,  even  though  a  hypocrite,  less  of  a 
hypocrite  than  he.  Politicians  study  the  art  of  adapta- 
tion, and  know  how  to  adjust  themselves  and  their 
speeches  to  the  whims  of  their  supporters.  Such  cases  as 
these  are  familiar  to  all,  and  are  worthily  despised.  But 
there  is  a  larger  class,  where  there  is  no  intentional  subter- 
fuge, which  is  constantly  falling  into  little  equivocations, 
shufflings,  dissimulations  and  reservations.  "We  find  it  dif- 
ficult to  be  just  what  we  are,  and  say  what  we  think  in 
Society  constituted  as  it  is.  There  are  proprieties  which 
must  not  be  outraged  ;  there  is  what  is  called  public  senti- 
ment, which  must  not  be  disregarded ;  there  is  etiquette 
which  exacts  punctilious  homage,  and  customs  innumer- 
able which  demand  respectful  attention ;  and  between 
them  all  men  and  women  are  shaped  into  the  merest  sem- 
blance of  themselves.  The  desire  to  avoid  being  odd  and 
grotesque,  and  the  wish  to  be  distinguished  by  manners, 
breeding  and  courtly  style,  combined  with  a  dread  of  criti- 
cism from  those  who  sneer  at  everything  rustic,  boorish 
and  clownish,  and  who  denounce  a  departure  from  "good 


THE   DEMAGOGUE.  333 

form "  more  vehemently  than  a  departure  from  good 
morals,  tends  toward  affectedness,  dandyism  and  foppish- 
ness. Hence  we  have  a  host  of  men  who  are  exquisites,  cox- 
combs and  beaux,  and  who  present  in  themselves  only  the 
burlesque  of  manhood.  The  social  code  likewise  compels 
us  to  bow  to  those  whom  we  do  not  respect,  to  shake  hands 
with  those  whom  we  would  be  pleased  to  thrash,  to  regret 
the  withdrawal  of  one  whom  we  have  inwardly  prayed 
might  depart,  and  to  request  the  speedy  return  of  those 
whom  we  rather  hope  we  shall  never  see  again,  not  even  in 
eternity. 

No  wonder  in  view  of  these  insincerities  that  Mrs. 
Browning  sings,  and  that  some  of  us  echo  the  sad  refrain  : 

"  Some  respect  for  social  fictions 

Hath  been  also  lost  by  me  ; 
And  some  generous  genuflexions, 

Which  my  spirit  offered  free 
To  the  pleasant  old  conventions  of  our  false  humanity." 

Nor  is  this  the  Avorst  type  of  character,  bad  as  it  is, 
which  results  from  the  prevalence  of  shameless  shrewd- 
ness, shabby  shams  and  showy  shoddy  in  modern  life. 
The  success  of  impositions,  and  the  simplicity  and  gulli- 
bility of  the  crowd  combined  with  an  undemocratic  love 
of  fulsome  praise,  have  produced  that  most  inflated,  arro- 
gant and  unveracious  specimen  of  humanity — The  Dema- 
gogue. He  is,  as  Artemus  Ward  would  say,  "unfortu- 
nately very  numerous,"  even  as  he  is  very  shallow  and 
absurd.  Let  us  attempt  his  portrait.  It  ought  not  to  be 
hard  to  paint,  as  the  original  is  not  far  to  find.  He  is  one 
whose  religious  belief  is  expressed  by  the  proverb,  vox 
pojmli  vox  Dei.  He  entertains,  or  pretends  to  entertain, 
grout  reverence  for  the  people.  The  multitude  practically 
represent  the  majesty  of  heaven,  and  he  seeks  most  de- 
voutly to  trim  his  sails  to  their  divergent  humors.  He 
knows  no  other  object  of  worship  ;  and  though  the  vocif- 


334  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

eration  of  the  Athenians  for  the  death  of  Socrates,  and  the 
louder  cry  of  the  Jews  for  the  official  murder  of  Jesus,  and 
the  vehement  demand  of  the  Parisians  for  the  Guillotine  ; 
and  though  Shakespeare  has  shown  by  the  experience  of 
Menenius  Agrippa  and  by  the  indignation  of  Coriolanus, 
that  the  human  voice  is  far  from  always  being  the  voice 
Divine,  he  has  never  dreamt  of  any  higher  creed.  This 
was  Kobespierre's  faith.  He  claimed  that  the  masses  could 
not  seriously  err  ;  and  he  was  a  chief  among  demagogues, 
and  by  his  death  furnished  one  of  the  few  sound  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  their  infallibility— they  sent  him  where 
he  had  sent  so  many,  to  the  scaffold.  In  this  instance,  at 
least,  we  may  admit  the  vox  populi  vox  Dei. 

Were  demagogues  in  reality  benefactors,  we  would  have 
no  word  of  criticism  to  offer.  But  they  are  not.  The  end 
of  their  faith  is  their  own  promotion.  They  are  generally 
a  singular  composition  of  selfishness,  self-conceit  and  self- 
delusion.  There  are  silly  demagogues  and  wicked  dema- 
gogues; but  they  are  all  self -infatuated,  self-contained  and 
self-seeking.  They  simply  use  the  people  as  stepping- 
stones  to  power,  as  some  so-called  religious  persons  use 
Christ  as  a  convenient  way  to  heaven,  to  be  adopted  when 
all  the  joys  of  earth  have  been  exhausted.  If  the  multi- 
tudes, when  they  are  lauded,  extolled  and  fondled,  are 
deceived,  they  need  not  be  surprised;  for  though  it  is  an 
ungrateful  thing  to  say,  it  is  true,  that  they  are  being  led 
by  designing  men  as  sheep  to  the  slaughter.  They  who 
thus  rise  at  their  expense,  entertain  the  profoundest  admi- 
ration for  their  own  abilities.  Your  real  demagogue  has 
confidence  in  his  "star,"  believes  in  the  singular  greatness 
of  his  destiny,  and  considers  himself  equal  to  anything. 
lie  regards  himself  as  many-sided  —  feels  that  posterity 
will  desire  to  know  his  movements  and  his  thoughts,  and 
so  keeps  a  journal,  records  his  speeches,  sometimes  builds 
his  own  sepulcher,  and  inscribes  thereon  an  account  of  his 


JOHN   SWINTOJf.  335 

many  virtues.  If  he  happens  to  be  a  preacher,  he  is 
familiar  with  the  Almighty,  speaks  without  misgivings  of 
his  plans  and  purposes,  and  waves  with  lofty  supercilious- 
ness all  who  differ  from  him  and  his  adherents  into  a  place 
of  sorrow  and  despair.  If  he  is  a  politician,  he  considers 
himself  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  nation,  assunns 
that  his  cunning  is  wisdom,  that  his  office-seeking  is 
patriotism,  that  his  assertions  are  arguments,  and  that  his 
projects  are  public  benefactions.  If  he  is  a  physician,  a 
lawyer,  a  merchant  —  for  he  is  a  possibility  in  every  pro- 
fession—  he  is  heady,  arrogant,  patronizing;  a  boasting, 
windy  braggart,  who,  like  the  philosopher,  sees  nothing 
great  but  man,  and  unlike  the  philosopher,  sees  no  man 
great  but  himself.  His  self-conceit  is  always  shoreless, 
oceanic,  Titanic,  and  engulfs  in  its  depths  every  trace  of 
modesty  and  humility,  and  beats  down  or  swallows  up 
nearly  everything  that  is  valuable  in  human  nature.  He 
knows  how  to  cringe  when  he  has  purposes  to  serve;  he 
knows  how  to  forget  the  obligations  he  is  under  to  those 
around  him;  and  he  knows  how  to  veer  with  the  facility  of 
the  weathercock.  And  he  is  sufficiently  adept  in  sophistry, 
and  oblivious  enough  to  everything  save  his  own  advance- 
ment, to  reconcile  his  deviations  and  schemings  with  the 
sense  of  his  own  importance  and  dignity. 

If  we  may  credit  newspaper  reports  of  him,  John  Swin- 
ton,  the  Socialist,  if  not  a  full-fledged  demagogue,  is  at 
least  one  in  embryo.  We  refer  to  him,  not  because  we  are 
animated  by  unkind  feelings  toward  John,  or  because  we 
are  acquainted  with  him  and  dislike  him.  He  may  be, 
and  very  likely  is,  a  man  of  estimable  qualities,  but  the 
accounts  of  him  we  have  seen,  and  especially  the  one  to 
which  we  desire  to  refer,  are  not  favorable  to  the  sound- 
ness of  his  judgment  or  the  thoroughness  of  his  reforming 
efforts.  To  us  he  is  little  more  than  a  myth,  and  we  take 
the  liberty  of  introducing  him  to  our  readers  because  he 


336  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

illustrates  the  facility  with  which  men,  who  may  really 
desire  to  be  helpful,  fall  into  superficial  and  misleading 
arts,  and  pander  to  the  prejudices  of  the  unthinking  and 
discontented.  John,  it  seems,  attended  a  labor  picnic  at 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  and  during  the  festivities  made  a  speech. 
He  pictured  the  homes  of  the  shrunken,  shriveled,  sunken- 
eyed  and  hollow-cheeked  children  of  toil,  who  had  built 
the  great  mills  which  add  so  much  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
beautiful  city  where  they  eke  out  a  meager  subsistence. 
Viewing  what  he  regarded  as  an  injustice,  he  reminded  his 
hearers  that  those  who  built  the  mills  did  not  own  them, 
and  proceeded  in  indignant  tones  to  propound  the  follow- 
ing questions  :  "  How  did  the  property  get  into  the 
hands  of  the  Comings  and  Burdens?  How  did  that  land 
get  into  Coming's  hands  where  poor  Strang  was  killed  ?  " 
The  kind  of  answers  he  anticipated  to  these  queries,  which 
fairly  hiss  with  insinuations,  we  can  readily  surmise;  but 
the  reply  made  by  the  Troy  Times  was  certainly  very  dif- 
ferent from  what  he  expected.  In  quoting  from  its  col- 
ums,  we  want  it  distinctly  understood  that  we  have  no 
personal  acquaintance  with  the  Comings  and  Burdens,  and 
that  they  are  as  mythical  to  us  as  John  himself. 

Fifty  years  ago  or  more  there  came  to  Troy  a  poor  Scotch  emi- 
grant. He  was  honest,  industrious,  temperate  and  frugal.  He  was 
a  master  of  his  trade — that  of  an  iron-worker.  He  started  a  little 
shop  on  the  AVynantskill.  His  skill  in  handicraft  succeeded  in  at- 
Iracling  business  to  him.  His  little  shop  grew  from  its  humble  begin- 
nings to  works  of  mammoth  proportions,  giving  employment  to 
hundreds  of  men,  enabling  the  operatives  to  care  for  wives,  children 
and  other  dependent  ones,  and  helping  to  build  up  here  at  Troy  one 
of  the  great  seats  of  wealth,  population  and  industry.  When  other 
men  were  wasting  their  substance  in  dissipation,  he  was  saving  the 
fruits  of  his  labor  and  investing  it  in  new  enterprises  for  the  benefit 
of  humanity  in  general.  When  other  men  were  sleeping,  he  was 
spending  his  nights  in  his  workshop  or  in  his  study,  elalwrating  in- 
ventions to  lighten  labor  and  dignify  the  laborer.  He  died  a  rich 
man;  but  he  had  earned  every  dollar  of  his  vast  estate  by  industry, 


CONDITIONS  OF  SUCCESS.  337 

enterprise  and  honest  dealing  with  his  fellow-men.  He  transmitted 
Ins  factories  and  mills  to  his  sons,  and  they  have  gone  on  enlarging 
and  adding  to  them  until  to-day  the  Burden  works  are  celebrated  all 
over  the  country,  not  alone  for  their  extent,  but  for  the  superior 
character  of  the  productions  they  place  upon  the  markets  of  the 
world.  That  is  the  way,  John  Swinton,  a  portion  of  the  property  you 
speak  of  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Burden  family. 

And  of  Erastus  Corning  the  Times  says  : 

Erastus  Corning,  the  founder  of  the  Corning  estate,  was  a  man 
like  unto  Mr.  Burden.  He  went  to  Albany  a  poor  boy,  became  a 
merchant,  lived  soberly,  uprightly,  dealt  justly  with  his  fellow-men. 
By  years  of  industrious  application  to  business  he  amassed  a  fortune; 
he  invested  in  iron  mills  and  railroad  enterprises,  and  by  that  means 
he  helped  to  make  Troy  a  prosperous  city  and  New  York  the  Empire 
State  of  the  Union.  The  democratic  party  in  its  better  days  sent 
him  to  congress  to  make  laws  for  the  nation,  and  he  made  them  well. 
His  son  is  no  unworthy  scion  of  an  illustrious  sire.  That  is  the  way 
the  Corning  works  came  into  possession  of  the  Corning  family,  John 
Swinton. 

Whether  John  profited  by  the  reply  or  not  we  have  no 
means  of  knowing;  but  it  is  one  that  deserves  to  be  pon- 
dered by  working  people  all  over  the  land.  It  indicates 
that  success  depends  on  sobriety,  self-control  and  industry. 
Even  cooperative  schemes,  highly  as  they  should  be  valued, 
can  never  be  made  effective  aside  from  these  sterling  quali- 
ties. He  who  talks  in  such  a  way  as  to  obscure  this 
obvious  truth,  is  no  real  friend  to  any  one.  He  may  mean 
to  be  a  helper,  but  he  is  in  fact  a  deceiver;  for  he  is 
encouraging  the  belief  that  some  new  order  of  Society 
can  supersede  the  necessity  for  hard,  intelligent  and 
well-directed  toil.  This  is  a  fatal  illusion,  and  the 
wider  it  is  spread  the  greater  the  shiftlessness  of  wage- 
workers,  and  the  more  numerous  their  evasions,  neglects 
and  impositions.  And  as  the  result  of  questionings  such 
as  these  of  John  Swinton  we  have  a  trend  toward  sullen, 
discontented  idleness,  organizing  itself  in  strikes  and  lead- 
ing to  malodorous  political  nostrums  and  pretentious 
M 


338  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

economical  quackery.  Into  such  pitfalls  of  artificiality  are 
our  demagogues  leading  the  people;  and  the  more  atten- 
tion they  give  them  the  further  will  they  depart  from 
those  veracious  conditions  which  are  alike  indispensable  to 
the  prosperity  of  individuals  and  nations. 

At  times  it  seems  as  though  Society  were  eaten  through 
and  through  with  falsehood,  as  though  it  were  rapidly 
becoming  one  mountainous  lie,  and  must  necessarily  fall 
to  pieces  of  its  own  unveracity.  It  seems  as  though  it 
must  poison  itself  by  its  endless  quackeries  and  circumvent 
itself  by  its  manifold  conjurations,  and  ruin  itself  by  its 
protean  charlatanisms.  If  it  is  saved  government  must  do 
all  that  law  can  do  to  protect  the  citizen  against  fraud. 
And  in  this  direction  its  labors  can  easily  be  made  effectual. 
Let  us  not  forget  that  it  is  invested  with  this  responsibility, 
and  if  it  fails,  it  is  due  either  to  the  inadequacy  of  the 
statute  or  the  feebleness  of  the  executive.  Defects  in 
either  direction  should  be  promptly  corrected,  and  they  can 
be  if  the  people  are  anxious  to  put  an  end  to  impositions. 
Inspection  of  food,  inspection  of  liquor,  yea,  inspection  in 
almost  every  branch  of  industry  is  imperatively  demanded; 
and  the  obligation  that  every  article  sold  shall  be  distinctly 
marked  so  as  to  prevent  swindling  needs  to  be  impartially 
enforced.  While  we  speak  thus  and  believe  to  this  extent 
in  government  interference,  and  believe  it  practical,  yet 
we  know  that  it  will  never  prove  successful  until  the  moral 
sentiment  of  the  people  themselves  upholds  it  and  insists 
upon  it.  And  this  will  never  be  until  their  avarice  abates, 
and  the  foolish  ambitions  by  which  they  are  swayed  decline. 
At  present  they  are  anxious  to  be  rich,  they  are  intent  on 
social  standing;  and  in  their  hurry  and  competition  they 
do  not  consider  very  carefully  the  means  they  should  em- 
ploy. How  can  this  evil  spirit,  which  is  at  the  root  of  all 
our  crooked  growths,  be  exorcised  ?  Not  by  statute,  cer- 
tainly. Legislatures  and  legislative  enactments  never  yet 


THE   ULTIMATE   EXPOSURE.  330 

have  regenerated  a  nation,  and  never  can.  Law  cannot 
probe  deep  enough,  nor  can  it  implant  in  the  heart  rever- 
ence for  the  rights  of  others.  Here  is  a  work  that  religion 
must  perform,  and  which,  if  religion,  according  to  the 
crazy  programme  of  the  secularists,  is  destroyed,  must 
forever  remain  undone.  Christianity  is  in  reality  our 
chief  dependence.  She  comes  from  heaven  protesting 
against  unveracity,  preaching  a  Savior  who  is  Himself  the 
Truth,  seeking  to  lead  us  into  all  truth,  and  delivering  us 
from  bondage  to  lies.  This  is  her  mission,  and  in  pro- 
portion as  it  is  successful  must  all  forms  of  imposture  have 
an  end. 

She  denounces  guile  with  unfaltering  and  uncompro- 
mising fidelity;  and  that  the  world  may  realize  how  vain 
and  foolish  every  kind  of  false-dealing  is,  she -represents  it 
as  being  brought  at  last  before  the  tribunal  of  Him  who 
will  weigh  all  deeds  in  His  balances  and  judge  all  right- 
eously. It  is  also  written  in  the  Book  which  contains  the 
brightest  expression  of  her  spirit  that  "a  just  weight  is  His 
delight,"  and  that  He  will  test  us  thereby.  One  place  evi- 
dently there  is  in  His  great  universe  where  sham,  shoddy 
and  deceit  will  be  valued  according  to  their  true  worth, 
and  where  the  "refuge  of  lies  "shall  be  destroyed.  We 
need  not  tell  you  that  that  spot  is  where  the  Almighty 
shall  institute  impartial  inquiry,  and  shall  reward  accord- 
ing to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  You  may  remember 
the  scene  in  Daniel's  Prophecy,  typical  of  the  final  Judg- 
ment Day,  when  the  King  sees  the  handwriting  on  the 
wall,  and  hears  the  interpretation  which  declares  that  he 
has  been  weighed  and  has  been  found  wanting.  God  still 
holds  the  balances,  and  every  hour  we  are  in  the  scales; 
and  when  life  closes  He  will  announce  the  decision  —  a 
decision  that  shall  rank  us  forever  either  with  the  true  or 
false.  Though  none  may  know  it  now,  all  shall  know  it 
then,  and  if  the  lips  of  Justice  shall  then  say  "wanting," 


340  STUDIES  IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

angels  and  saints  shall  see  that  we  have  been  a  shadow,  a 
chimera,  equivocal  and  misleading,  and  must  troop  with 
our  unveracities  into  a  most  real  perdition. 


VII. 
THE  DIVISIONS  OF  SOCIETY. 

The  ignorance,  stupidity,  the  hate, 

Envy  and  malice  and  uncharitableness, 

That  bar  your  passage,  break  the  flow  of  you 

Down  from  those  happy  heights  where  many  a  cloud 

Combined  to  give  you  birth,  and  bid  you  be 

The  royalist  of  rivers  :  on  you  glide, 

Silvery  till  you  reach  the  summit-edge  ; 

Then  over,  on  to  all  that  ignorance, 

Stupidity,  hate,  envy,  bluffs  and  blocks, 

Posted  to  fret  you  into  foam  and  noise. 

AVhat  of  it?    Up  you  mount  in  minute  mist, 

And  bridge  the  chasm  that  crushed  your  quietude, 

A  spirit  rainbow,  earth  born  jewelry 

Outsparkling  the  insipid  firmament, 

Blue  above  Terni  and  its  orange-trees. 

Do  not  mistake  me  !    You,  too,  have  your  rights, 

Hans  must  not  burn  Kant's  house  above  his  head 

Because  he  cannot  understand  Kant's  book  ; 

And  still  less  must  Hans'  pastor  burn  Kant's  self 

Because  Kant  understands  some  books  too  well. 

— Robert  Browning 

THE  Jews  and  the  Samaritans  hated  each  other  sincerely 
and  vigorously.  They  excommunicated  each  other 
heartily,  and  having  no  dealings  together  on  earth,  antici- 
pated also  equally  satisfactory  exclusivuness  in  heaven. 
Mount  Gerizim  and  Mount  Moriali  were  in  perpetual  an- 
tagonism until  the  fires  of  hoth  altars  were  extinguished 
by  the  sacrificial  love  of  J.esus  Christ.  The  bigotry  of 
these  old  communities  recalls  a  story  related  by  Herbert 
Spencer,  in  which  rivalries  as  senseless  and  as  proscrip- 

341 


342  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL    LIFE. 

live  are  chronicled.  Abd-el-Latref,  of  Wahhabee,  re- 
counted to  the  people  of  Eiad  one  day  the  tradition  accord- 
ing to  which  Mahomet  declared  that  his  followers  should 
divide  into  seventy-three  sects,  and  that  seventy-two  were 
destined  to  hell-fire  and  only  one  to  Paradise.  This  one 
fortunate  sect  should  be  composed  of  those  who  conformed 
to  the  example  of  the  prophet.  "And  this  happy  sect  are 
we/'  added  the  preacher,  in  tones  of  deepest  conviction. 
Time  has  been  when  some  Christians  have  not  hesitated  to 
express  themselves  as  dogmatically  regarding  the  doom  of 
those  Avho  differed  from  them  in  opinion  as  the  Wahhabee; 
and  though  that  time  has  passed,  there  are  yet  denomina- 
tions whose  sectarianism  is  an  offense  to  the  purest  and 
noblest  thought  of  the  age  and  whose  petty  animosities, 
wretched  jealousies  and  profitless  controversies  constitute 
one  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  the  triumph  of 
Christianity.  And  as  though  this  disunity  were  not  suf- 
ficiently mortifying,  Avithin  the  limits  of  each  particular 
denomination,  and  in  almost  every  local  church,  variance, 
discord  and  schism  frequently  appear  to  the  discomfort 
and  discredit  of  all  concerned,  and  to  the  intense  satisfac- 
tion of  those  who  have  no  confidence  whatever  in  religion. 
Among  the  Greeks,  it  is  said,  the  island  of  Delos  was  con- 
secrated to  peace,  but  we  know  of  no  such  spot  permanently 
respected  by  the  followers  of  Him  who  is  called  the 
"  Prince  of  Peace."  and  who  came  to  create  the  fellowship 
of  love.  Instead,  there  are  "wars  and  rumors  of  wars," 
numerous  cliques,  coteries,  cabals;  and  with  them  bicker- 
ing, squabbling,  wrangling  and  disruption. 

Such  being  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  most  sacred  of  all 
domains,  it  is  not  surprising  that  parties  should  appear 
elsewhere.  They  cast  their  shadows  on  us  from  a  vener- 
able age,  and  still  darken  our  way.  The  history  of 
ancient  Rome  is  largely  a  record  of  acts  similar  to 
the  crime  that  crimsoned  her  foundations  with  blood. 


CEASELESS   CONFLICTS.  343 

Romulus  causes  his  brother  Remus  to  be  slain,  and 
throughout  the  subsequent  annals  of  the  city  we  seem  to 
see  the  repetition  of  the  fratricidal  cruelty  which  disgraced 
her  origin.  Plots,  counterplots,  conspiracies,  civil  war 
and  assassination  are  the  commonplaces  of  her  career; 
and,  as  though  the  evil  spirit  from  which  they  sprang 
would  not  down,  even  in  medieval  times  the  feuds  of  the 
Colonna  and  the  Orsiui  constantly  jeopardized  her  safety, 
just  as  the  contests  between  the  Ghibellini  and  the 
Guelfi,  and  between  the  Bianchi  and  the  Neri,  distracted 
Florence.  And  what  is  true  of  Italy  is  likewise  true  of 
other  countries.  From  the  Danube  to  the  Rhine, 
from  the  Rhine  to  the  Seine,  and  from  the  Seine  to  the 
Thames  and  the  Tweed,  little  else  was  heard  for  weary 
centuries  save  the  clang  of  arms,  the  tramp  of  the  preda- 
tory chief  and  the  noise  of  battle.  The  fighters  in  the 
field  were  but  a  part  of  a  greater  host  of  fighters  in  the 
courts  of  kings  and  in  the  palaces  of  the  nobles.  States- 
men, barons,  princes  and  burghers  were  constantly  schem- 
ing against  each  other,  and  doing  their  best  to  hold  their 
own  or  advance  their  personal  interests  at  each  other's  ex- 
pense ;  and  when  their  word-conflicts  failed  to  reach  a  de- 
cided issue,  through  their  partisans  they  appealed  to 
sturdier  measures.  Thus  in  the  past,  the  whole  world 
wore  the  air  of  a  beleaguered  camp,  and  the  spirit  of  dis- 
cord reigned.  Nor  is  it  very  different  in  the  present. 
The  forms  and  appliances  have  indeed  changed,  but  there 
seems  to  be  about  as  much  strife  as  ever.  Society  is  still 
divided,  and  almost  endlessly  sub-divided.  There  is.  per- 
haps, no  party  but  has  one  or  more  parties  within  itself ; 
and  it  seems  next  to  impossible  to  get  any  reasonable  num- 
ber of  persons  to  see  alike  on  any  subject.  There  are  in 
this  country  two  great  political  bodies,  but  these  are  rent 
by  internal  dissensions.  The  Democrats  are  distracted  by 
their  Irving  Hall,  their  Tammany  Hall  factious,  and  by 


344  STUDIES    IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

their  extreme  and  moderate  wings  ;  while  the  Republicans 
are  equally  disturbed  by  their  "stalwarts  "  on  the  one  side 
and  their  "debilitates"  on  the  other.  The  community  is 
distinguished  by  the  terms  "rich  and  poor";  but  we  all 
know  that  these  classes  are  simply  genera  under  which  the 
most  diverse  species  are  distributed.  Even  the  affluent 
members  of  community  do  not  constitute  one  happy 
family.  There  are  those  who  affect  intellectuality,  and 
Avho  regard  with  something  akin  to  scorn  those  who  devote 
themselves  to  fashion  ;  and  there  are  yet  others  in  this 
plebeian  nation  who  pride  themselves  on  the  aristocracy  of 
their  birth,  and  like  the  Jews,  have  no  dealings  with  the 
prosperous  Samaritans  who  were  born  of  an  inferior  and 
mongrel  stock.  The  indigent,  likewise,  are  not  an  un- 
broken brotherhood,  feeling  in  common,  and  see- 
ing eye  to  eye.  Leaving  out  of  sight  the  primary  dis- 
tinction of  worthy  and  unworthy  poor,  and  holding  our- 
selves to  the  former  order,  we  find  that  it  is  not 
undisturbed  by  rivalries,  jousts  and  squabbles.  For 
instance,  there  are  many  who  are  heartily  ashamed  of 
their  connection  with  the  impoverished,  and  who  by 
divers  arts  seek  to  create  the  impression  that  they  are 
above  their  class,  and  are  really  treated  with  marked  con- 
sideration by  their  social  superiors  ;  and  there  are  others 
who  despise  this  base  spirit  of  compromise,  and  who  in- 
dulge in  fierce  invectives  and  coarse  threats  against  all 
who  have  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  fortunats  in  this 
world's  goods.  When  such  persons  attempt  organization 
for  the  furtherance  of  their  own  interests,  whether  called 
"Leagues,"  "Trade-Unions,"  or  "Internationals,"  the 
tendency  toward  segregation  is  painfully  apparent.  Fac- 
tions start  up  almost  immediately  and  do  much  to  nullify 
the  good  which  judicious  combinations  might  otherwise 
effect.  Man  is  arrayed  against  man  ;  fellow-workmen  can- 
not harmonize  their  views  ;  leaders  are  suspected  of  sel- 


THE    DISPUTATIOUS   SPIRIT.  345 

fishness ;  clashing  policies  are  urged  on  administrations  ; 
and  as  much  cunning,  bitterness  and  unscrupulousness  are 
displayed  in  the  feuds  of  labor  as  in  the  altercations 
between  labor  and  capital.  Indeed,  so  far  is  this  spirit 
carried  that  were  we  as  a  nation  prepared  for  a  change  of 
government,  and  were  we  to  commit  its  formation  to 
those  who  call  themselves  "Socialists,"  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  them  to  agree.  A  convention  of  such  persons 
though  answering  to  a  common  name,  would  not  preserve 
the  peace  for  a  day,  and  speedily  would  be  shivered  into 
contending  parties.  Great  diversity  exists  in  their  ranks, 
and  the  effort  to  unite  them  in  a  congress  for  the  adop- 
tion of  new  principles  of  political  action  would  undoubt- 
edly end  in  a  noisy  row.  If  our  position  is  challenged  let 
it  be  tested.  Bring  all  the  branches  of  Socialism  together 
and  let  them  draw  up  a  Constitution  and  by-laws  for  the 
alleged  coming  Republic  if  they  can.  We  have  a  right  to 
know  what  they  propose.  If  they  are  hopelessly  divided 
among  themselves  they  cannot  expect  outsiders  to  do 
otherwise  than  stand  by  the  old  order.  That  they  are 
thus  divided  such  a  meeting  as  we  propose  would  effect- 
ively demonstrate.  This,  however,  is  not  said  to  disparage 
the  lowly;  for  as  we  have  already  intimated,  their  inability 
to  join  forces  is  paralleled  in  other  circles.  Everywhere  it 
exists.  In  the  chamber  of  commerce  there  will  be  vari- 
ance, in  the  cabinet  of  a  nation  there  will  be  dissension, 
in  the  conferences  of  pastors,  the  associations  of  teachers, 
and  the  fellowships  of  temperance  advocates  there  will  be 
disputes,  jarrings  and  ruptures;  and  even  in  guilds  of 
artists,  troupes  of  performers,  and  in  companies  of  musi- 
cians there  will  oftentimes  be  jealousies,  contentions  and 
struggles,  which  sadly  illustrate  the  inadequacy  of  studies 
in  harmonies  of  color  and  sound  to  preserve  the  harmonies 
of  life.  All  men,  or  nearly  all,  alike  seem  to  be  afflicted 
with  a  disputatious  spirit.  They  desire  to  coalesce,  seek 


346  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

to  combine,  and  then  fall  to  wrangling.  Strikingly  they 
illustrate  the  two  supreme  forces  in  the  universe — the 
centripetal  and  the  centrifugal;  for  they  are  ever  trying 
to  draw  closer  together,  and  then  are  flying  away  from 
the  center.  Divisions,  therefore,  in  the  present  condition 
of  humanity  may  be  looked  for  as  inevitable.  "  The 
eleventh  juryman  "  is  irrepressible.  Like  the  ghost  of 
Banquo  he  will  rise  up  "to  push  us  from  our  stools." 
Disunity  will  go  hand  in  hand  with  unity;  and  until  the 
nice  is  radically  changed  the  prospect  of  seeing  eye  to  eye 
must  be  regarded  as  exceedingly  dim  and  shadowy. 

That  rivalries,  in  many  respects,  have  proven  advanta- 
geous to  Society  cannot  successfully  be  denied.  Agitations 
at  times  have  appeared  to  promote  its  advancement.  De- 
bate and  battle  seem  to  be  conditions  of  its  progress. 
From  the  Eros  and  Anteros,  attraction  aud  repulsion,  of 
the  old  Greek  philosophy,  something  more  seems  to  be 
born  than  mere  physical  order  and  well-being.  ' '  The 
struggle  for  existence/'  and  "  the  survival  of  the  fittest," 
are  doctrines  not  without  illustrations  in  the  evolution  of 
civilization.  As  God  "answered  Job  out  of  the  whirl- 
wind," so  the  divine  in  man,  and  in  Society  as  well,  slowly 
emerges  from  the  strife  and  storm  of  clashing  systems, 
antagonistic  desires,  and  irreconcilable  ambitions.  Greater 
whirlwind  than  this  even  the  Almighty  never  spoke  from; 
and  we  can  conceive  of  none  on  sea  or  land  more  terrific 
or  more  powerful.  As  the  mountain  tempest  charged  with 
summer  heat  melts  the  snows  of  Switzerland  and  renders 
possible  the  harvest;  and  as  the  gales  that  rage  and  blow, 
wrecking  vessels  on  the  lakes  and  uprooting  strong  trees 
in  the  forest,  sweeps  malaria  from  our  fields  and  streets, 
so  the  controversies  and  discords  of  humanity  have  saved 
the  world  from  icy  stagnation,  barrenness  and  corruption, 
"See!"  writes  Browning — 


CURSE    OF    PREJUDICE.  347 

Where  winter  re'gned  for  ages, — by  a  turn 
I'  the  time,  some  star-change  (ask  geologists) 
The  ice  tracts  split,  crash,  splinter  and  disperse, 
And  there's  an  end  of  immobility. 
**#**#* 

What  result? 

New  teeming  growth,  surprises  of  strange  life, 
Impossible  before,  a  world  broke  up 
And  remade,  order  gained  by  law  destroyed. 
Not  otherwise,  in  our  society, 
Follow  like  portents,  all  as  absolute 
Regenerations. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  illustrate  how  strife  brings  in 
higher  and  nobler  forms  of  life.  But  it  is  important  that 
we  should  realize  the  possibility  and  peril  of  perverting 
this  principle  and  of  abusing  it  to  our  own  undoing.  It 
may  be  carried  to  excess,  and  be  made  the  source  of 
unmitigated  evil  to  the  entire  community ;  for  it  may 
assume  such  a  character  and  breathe  such  a  spirit  as  to 
endanger  the  very  progress,  which  in  more  favorable 
circumstances  it  would  promote.  We  need,  therefore,  to 
note  these  phases  of  what  enters  so  largely  into  human 
affairs,  that  such  defects  and  extremes  may  be  avoided. 

First,  divisions  degenerate  into  a  positive  curse  when 
they  beget  and  foster  prejudice.  Commonly  they  do  this; 
not  of  course  in  the  same  degree,  nor  always  in  the  same 
way ;  but  just  in  proportion  as  they  do  so  at  all  they  defeat 
the  end  they  might  otherwise  subserve.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
has  given  some  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  this  vice  pre- 
vails, and  has  indicated  in  his  Study  of  Sociology  the  almost 
insurmountable  barriers  it  rears  in  the  way  of  improvement. 
Among  other  examples  he  cites  the  opposition  of  clergymen 
to  the  corn-laws,  and  of  army  officers  to  the  abrogation  of 
the  purchase  system,  an  antagonism  in  both  instances  in- 
consistent with  these  professions,  and  which  could  only 
have  been  prompted  by  narrow  and  contracted  views.  He 


348  STUDIE8   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

also  refers  to  the  dismissal  of  Mr.  Cowan  by  the  Indian 
Government  for  executing  without  form  of  law  some  Koska 
rioters  who  had  surrendered.  This,  as  he  remarks,  was 
"not  excessive  punishment,"  and  yet  it  was  denounced  as 
an  outrage  by  Sir  Donald  McLeod,  who  felt  as  an  Indian 
officer  that  his  class  had  been  affronted  by  the  decision. 
In  contrast  with  this,  Mr.  Spencer  publishes  the  following 
extract  from  a  daily  paper  : 

Five  poisoned  foxes  have  been  found  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Pon/ance,  and  there  is  consequently  great  indignation  among  the 
western  sportsmen.  A  reward  of  £20  has  been  offered  for  informa- 
tion that  shall  lead  to  the  conviction  of  the  poisoner. 

And  justly  adds,  "so  that  wholesale  homicide,  condemned 
alike  by  religion,  by  equity,  by  law,  is  approved,  and  the 
mildest  punishment  of  it  is  blamed ;  while  vulpicide,  com- 
mitted in  defense  of  property,  and  condemned  neither  by 
religion  nor  by  equity,  nor  by  any  law  save  that  of  sports- 
men, excites  an  anger  that  cries  aloud  for  positive  penal- 
ties." In  both  cases  "the  class  bias,"  as  our  philosopher 
calls  it,  begets  a  deep-seated  prejudice  which  blinds  to  the 
claims  of  humanity,  and  leads  to  manifest  injustice.  He 
likewise  points  out  how  long  it  takes  for  the  most  whole- 
some and  vital  discovery  to  obtain  recognition,  how  con- 
servatism in  favor  of  what  has  been  looks  with  sus- 
picion on  the  new,  and  fails  to  give  due  consideration 
to  what  is  advanced  in  its  favor.  It  took  the  English  Ad- 
miralty two  centuries  to  adopt  for  use  in  the  navy  sour 
juices,  though  it  had  been  demonstrated  over  and  over 
again  that  their  absence  from  the  fleet  led  to  scurvy"and  to 
mortality  exceeding  the  mortality  of  battle,  and  of  all 
sea-casualties  taken  together.  The  East  India  Company 
required  sixty  years  to  deliberate  on  the  wisdom  of  approv- 
ing in  its  service  the  use  of  ipecacuanha,  a  remedy  to  which 
the  attention  of  Europeans  was  called  as  early  as  1648. 
And  we  may  gather  from  the  history  of  all  discoveries  and 


THE   BIAS   OP   SELF-INTEREST.  349 

inventions  the  extreme  reluctance  of  those  whose  theories 
and  interests  they  seemed  to  compromise  to  give  them  a  can- 
did investigation.  The  laboring  classes  have  frequently 
opposed  the  employment  of  machinery;  and  even  lately  in 
America,  Herr  Most,  a  German  Socialist,  has  advocated 
its  destruction;  and  Moody  has  boldly  challenged  its 
value.  Strange  that  such  sentiments  should  find  utterance! 
Machinery  has  lightened  many  a  burden,  has  tended  to 
shorten  the  hours  of  toil,  and  gives  promise  of  even  larger 
blessings  to  the  world.  Only  the  most  inexcusable  preju- 
dice growing  out  of  inveterate  enmity  to  the  capitalist 
can  explain  the  mad  desire  to  have  its  powers  arrested. 
Charles  "Sumner  in  a  speech  on  "  Progress"  has  shown  that 
even  the  introduction  of  stage  coaches  into  England  was 
seriously  objected  to  on  the  ground  that  they  would  make 
men  careless  to  attain  good  horsemanship,  hinder  the  breed 
of  watermen  and  lead  to  other  evils;  and  that  steamboats 
and  railroads  were  likewise  opposed  as  delusions  and  impo- 
sitions, and  that  the  old  Greenwich  pensioners  especially 
objected  to  the  former,  because,  as  they  used  to  say,  "  the 
steamboat  is  so  contrary  to  nature."  In  all  of  these  cases 
there  appears  the  same  indisposition  to  admit  the  force  of 
evidence,  and  the  same  attachment  to  standards,  traditions 
and  parties,  which  still  hamper  and  impede  every  move- 
ment in  favor  of  social  improvement.  Gas  corporations 
cannot  see  any  hope  of  practical  benefit  from  the  electrical 
light;  and  other  monopolies  will  not  consent  to  the  possi- 
bility of  anything  desirable  springing  from  that  which 
promises  to  be  a  rival.  Labor  never  fairly  estimates  the 
position  and  rights  of  capital;  and  capital  rarely  does 
justice  to  the  needs  and  claims  of  labor.  They  come  to 
the  discussion  of  all  questions  between  them  in  the  blindness 
of  heated  partisanship,  and  hence  satisfactory  results  are 
rarely  reached.  Aristocracy  fails  to  perceive  plebeian 
worth,  as  it  is  profoundly  engaged  in  contemplating  its 


350  STUDIES   IN"   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

own  excellence;  and  plebeianism  is  unfair  in  its  criticisms 
of  aristocracy,  never  having  taken  time  for  anything  else 
save  the  study  of  its  own  sufferings.  Were  they  only  better 
acquainted  with  each  other,  their  recriminations  would  not 
be  as  fierce  as  they  are;  and  if  they  would  only  take 
pains  to  abate  their  prejudices,  they  could  and  would  coop- 
erate to  promote  the  welfare  of  Society. 

Secondly,  divisions  become  a  positive  evil  when  they 
lead  to  detraction  and  invective.  The  Bible  very  earnestly 
urges  the  necessity  and  importance  of  courtesy.  "Be 
kindly  affectioned  one  to  another  with  brotherly  love,  in 
honor  preferring  one  another,"  is  the  apostolic  precept,  a 
precept  which  is  frequently  ignored  even  by  ecclesiastics. 
We  have  accounts  of  church  trials  where  the  language  of 
Zion  degenerates  into  Billingsgate,  where  the  judges 
threaten  each  other  with  personal  violence,  and  where 
studied  efforts  are  made  to  blacken  the  character  of  wit- 
nesses. Thoughtful  Christians  hesitate  to  arraign  even 
the  most  culpable;  for  they  dread  the  result  on  the  con- 
gregation. They  know  it  will  most  likely  create  parties, 
and  that  if  it  does,  there  is  not  enough  conscientiousness 
among  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  to  prevent  the  parties 
from  having  recourse  to  backbiting,  obloquy,  and  defama- 
tion. They  therefore  prefer  to  leave  the  guilty  alone 
rather  than  provoke  a  storm  of  scurrility,  which  they  know 
full  well  will  surely  prove  disastrous  to  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  the  church.  Outside  of  religious  circles  this 
offense  against  decency  and  the  best  interests  of  mankind 
is  very  common.  We  have  been  painfully  impressed  with 
its  prevalence  in  English  political  life.  To  one  familiar 
with  the  personal  worth  and  eminent  services  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, it  seems  incredible  that  the  Opposition  would  conde- 
scend to  employ  base  and  scandalous  terms  in  speaking  of 
him.  Yet  that  such  is  the  case  one  conversant  with 
"  Tory  "  journals  cannot  doubt.  He  is  libeled,  lampooned, 


DETRACTION   AND   INVECTIVE.  351 

depreciated  and  calumniated  without  hesitancy  and  with- 
out apology.  But  the  "  Tory  "  papers  have  not  the  mon- 
opoly of  this  detestable  business.  The  "  Liberals "  sin 
just  as  gravely  against  propriety.  A  London  evening  pub- 
lication devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  former  party  called 
attention  three  summers  ago  to  the  peccadilloes  in  this  re- 
spect of  the  latter : 

It  is  a  stereotyped  complaint  with  Liberal  journals  that  the  wicked 
Tories  speak  and  write  abusively  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  Whether  the  al- 
legation be  true  or  not,  the  accused  might  well  resort  to  a  tu  quoque 
argument.  Here,  for  instance,  we  have  the  Western  Morning  News,  a 
paper  which  affects  to  be  moderate  and  dispassionate,  giving  admis- 
sion to  a  letter  the  scurrility  of  whose  language  could  not  easily  be 
surpassed .  Merely  because  Sir  Samuel  Baker  had  ventured  to  write 
that,  "  if  the  government  act  quickly  and  with  determination,  all 
England  will  follow  them  with  a  spirit  which,  though  long  dormant, 
is  still  alive,"  he  is  charged  with  acting  "  in  a  thoroughly  mean  and 
pitiful  manner,"  and  with  repeating  "  the  utterly  untruthful  and  oft- 
contradicted  slander  of  his  party."  But  Sir  Samuel  comes  off  lightly 
in  comparison  with  Lord  Beaconsfield,  Lord  Salisbury,  and  the 
party  generally.  "  Dizzy,"  as  the  writer,  with  charming  familiarity, 
styles  the  greatest  minister  England  has  had  for  many  a  year,  is 
charged  with  having  uttered  "  an  unspeakably  vile  and  heartless  lie  " 
when  he  used  the  phrase  "  coffee-house  babble  "  to  describe  the  mon- 
strous exaggerations  of  the  Bulgarian  atrocity  agitations.  Lord  Sal- 
isbury is  "  that  convicted  prince  of  liars  ;  "  the  Conservatives  are  "  the 
lying  party:  "  finally  it  is  laid  to  the  charge  of  Lord  Beaconslield 
that,  when  he  dined  at  the  Mansion  house,  "  he  feasted  at  the  cost, 
and  out  of  the  taxation  of  the  impoverished  Londoners." 

Of  course  this  kind  of  political  journalism  can  be 
easily  matched  in  America.  Perhaps  in  all  the  world 
there  is  no  press  more  skilled  in  the  use  of  opprobrious 
and  vituperative  epithets  than  a  section  of  our  own.  In 
a  sense  far  different  from  that  intended  by  Tennyson,  it 
reaches  "the  abysmal  depths  of  personality,"  and  agrees 
with  Dr.  Johnson  in  believing  that  any  stick  is  good 
enough  to  beat  a  dog  with,  and  that  every  adversary  is  a 
dog  to  be  beaten.  The  Saturday  Review  (March  23, 


352  STUDIES  Itf  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

1878)  thus  quotes  the  famous  doctor  and  his  admirer 
Boswell  on  this  subject:  "Treating  your  adversary  with 
respect,"  said  the  former,  "  is  giving  him  an  advantage  to 
which  he  is  not  entitled.  The  greatest  part  of  men  can- 
not judge  by  reasoning,  and  are  impressed  >  by  character, 
so  that,  if  you  allow  your  adversary  a  respectable  charac- 
ter, they  will  think  that,  though  you  differ  from  him,  you 
may  be  in  the  wrong.  Sir,  treating  your  adversary  with  re- 
spect is  striking  soft  in  battle  "  ;  the  latter  carried  "the 
theory  beyond  character,  to  personal  appearance,  and  held 
that  if  an  antagonist  was  an  ugly  dog,  and  thought  him- 
self handsome,  these  facts  would  be  perfectly  relevant  in 
an  argument  about  final  causes  or  any  other  topic."  These 
seem  to  be  the  sentiments  which  to  no  small  degree 
govern  political  journalism  in  America  as  in  Europe,  and 
hence  with  every  election  we  have  the  most  villanous 
charges  brought  against  our  public  men.  They  have  con- 
nived with  others  to  defraud  the  electors;  they  have  been 
guilty  of  bribery;  they  have  sympathized  with  "whiskey 
frauds,"  or  with  "  Star  Route  "  thieves;  they  have  plun- 
dered the  public  treasury,  and,  according  to  printed  rep- 
resentations, are  better  qualified  for  the  penitentiary  than 
for  Congress  or  the  White  House.  It  may  be  said  that 
many  of  our  great  dailies  and  small  dailies,  merely  over- 
state things  and  fall  into  exaggerations.  It  should  be 
hoped  that  they  do;  for  if  they  do  not,  Rome  at  its  worst 
was  not  further  gone  in  moral^  corruption  than  we.  But 
this  is  the  very  point  of  the  censure;  they  do  overstate,  and 
in  doing  so  encourage  the  most  vicious  elements  of  com- 
munity to  lift  up  hands  in  holy  wonder  at  the  wickedness 
of  the  men  who  are  honored  with  social  position,  and  to 
murmur  at  the  injustice  which  is  shown  them  in  threaten- 
ing them  with  jails,  when  those  who  are  greater  trans- 
gressors are  chosen  to  high  political  office.  The  influence 
of  such  journalism  is  demoralizing.  It  attaches  odium  to 


BITTERNESS  OF   PARTIES.  353 

the  public  service;  and  as  it  is  pursued  recklessly  and 
indiscriminately  it  comes  to  be  looked  on  as  a  matter  of 
course  and  crooked  politicians  are  neither  abashed  nor 
injured  by  it;  while  those  who  are  honest  are  simply  dis- 
gusted, and  for  the  sake  of  place  are  unwilling  to  run  a 
muck  with  a  host  of  conscienceless  scribblers.  Of  course 
there  are  notable  exceptions  to  this  reprehensible  mode 
of  conducting  newspaper  controversy.  Not  a  few  of  our 
editors  would  scorn  to  disgrace  their  columns  with  the 
vile  slanders  that  are  published  elsewhere.  They  do  not 
hesitate  to  denounce  wrong,  and  to  reprove  corruption; 
but  they  are  not  venal  enough  to  write  an  opponent 
"scoundrel"  for  the  mere  sake  of  party  success  and  the 
advantages  it  may  bring  to  them  financially  or  polit- 
ically. 

But  while  we  condemn  the  spirit  of  detraction  and 
invective  in  the  press,  let  us  not  overlook  its  presence 
elsewhere.  If  a  Communistic  Association  gathers,  as  a 
rule  it  straightway  gives  itself  to  noise,  bluster,  and  fierce 
phillipics,  threatening  murder  and  arson,  and  invoking 
the  Eumenides — Tisiphone,  Megara,  and  Alecto — to  vent 
their  fury  on  the  heads  of  those  who  happen  to  have 
worldly  possesssions;  and  if  a  company  of  traders  sink 
money  through  the  greater  enterprise,  skill  and  brains  of 
another — as,  for  instance,  the  "bulls"  and  the  "bears" 
on  "change" — not  uncommonly  the  losing  party  de- 
nounces the  winning  party  as  liars  and  thieves;  and  if 
reformers  of  any  class  come  together  they  are  very  apt 
to  denounce  those  who  only  differ  from  them  in  method 
and  not  in  aim,  as  Dr.  Crosby  of  New  York  has  been 
by  some  small,  self-conceited,  and  intemperate  Boston 
temperance  agitators,  almost  in  the  same  terms  of  cen- 
sure as  they  would  legitimately  employ  when  charac- 
terizing the  avowed  supporters  of  the  liquor  traffic.  Now 
this  is  not  only  unjust,  it  is  also  unwise.  By  whomsoever 
23 


354  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

employed  and  in  whatever  cause  violence,  bitterness,  and 
detraction  are  baneful.  They  arouse  indignation  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  differ,  and  unfit  them  to  weigh  calmly 
any  suggestions  that  may  be  offered.  By  them  men  are 
driven  farther  apart  than  ever,  suspicion  and  unkind  feel- 
ings are  developed,  and  the  entire  community  becomes 
harsh  in  its  judgments  and  unlovely  in  its  temper. 

Thirdly,  we  shall  find  divisions  to  be  hurtful  and  mis- 
chievous when  they  promote  arrogance  and  self-conceit. 
We  meet  with  this  peculiar  weakness  very  frequently  in 
Society,  especially  among  some  of  those  who  have  attained 
to  sudden  riches.  The  first  symptom  of  their  sublime 
superciliousness  is  the  loss  of  their  memory,  which  they 
never  recover.  They  forget  and  wish  every  one  else  to 
forget  their  humble  origin.  One  New  York  millionaire 
said  to  another,  cynically  desiring  to  recall  his  obscure 
start  in  life,  "This  elegant  party  is  better  than  selling 
peanuts";  to  which  the  other  replied  sarcastically,  "  Pea- 
nuts are  as  good  as  pies."  Evidently  neither  of  them 
could  afford  to  throw  stones.  Both  of  them  had  made 
their  own  fortune  and  were  ashamed  to  acknowledge  the 
facf.  Their  parents  were  lowly  people  as  yours  were,  or 
your  grandparents,  most  aristocratic  reader,  and  to  blush 
for  them  is  unworthy  you.  It  is  as  foolish  as  the  exclusive- 
ness  attempted  in  some  quarters.  We  say  "foolish"  and 
Ave  might  say  unjust,  for  while  there  will  always  be  cliques 
and  fraternities  founded  on  kindred  tastes  and  excellences, 
the  exclusiveness  to  which  we  refer  is  devoid  of  justifica- 
tion. It  draws  distinctions  on  the  ground  of  money,  and 
it  affects  to  thrust  the  toilers  of  the  world  into  a  class  by 
themselves,  and  to  treat  them  as  though  of  inferior  rank 
and  worth.  The  do-nothings,  the  affluent  idlers,  frown 
on  those  who  have  to  work  as  though  they  were  of  a  lower 
race.  The  Art  Interchange  gives  a  sample  of  this  spirit 
in  an  article  which  furnishes  food  for  serious  reflection: 


A   WASHERWOMAN.  355 

The  congregation  of  a  fashionable  New  York  church  is  just  at 
present  energetically  discussing  the  question  of  "ought  we  to  visit 
her,"  a  large  majority  of  the  members,  it  is  reported,  inclining  to  the 
negative.  The  ' '  het1 "  in  this  case  is  the  mother  of  their  pastor,  a 
woman  of  irreproachable  moral  character  and  unobtrusive  manners. 
Although  no  fault  can  be  found  with  her  manners  or  her  morals,  she 
has  in  the  past  been  guilty  of  that  which  determines  a  society  of 
Christians  to  withhold  from  her  the  ordinary  courtesies  of  social 
life.  Her  offense  is  that,  in  former  days,  in  order  to  support  herself 
and  a  family  of  children,  she  pursued  the  calling  of  a  washerwoman 
and  a  people  which  worships  the  son  of  a  carpenter,  refuses  to  ex- 
tend social  recognition  to  a  worthy  woman  who  by  the  faithful  per- 
formance of  lowly  duties  has  aided  her  son  to  attain  his  present  hon- 
orable position. 

This  is  an  illustration  of  the  spirit  exhibited  by  society  toward 
women  who  are  compelled  to  support  themselves.  It  is  still  dis- 
graceful for  a  woman  to  work  for  a  money  consideration.  Accord- 
ing to  the  code  of  society  it  is  far  more  creditable  for  a  woman  to 
depend  on  the  grudgingly  bestowed  bounty  of  relatives  or  friends — 
to  be  in  fact  a  pauper  in  all  but  name — than  for  her  to  go  out  into 
the  business  world  and  win  a  livelihood  for  herself.  A  girl  may 
accept  costly  gifts  from  her  male  acquaintances  on  the  most  flimsy 
pretexts  and  not  lose  caste,  but  if  she  enters  a  factory,  store  or  office, 
the  doors  of  society  are  closed  against  her.  This  applies  to  all  the 
industries  and  to  all  but  a  few  of  the  professions.  For  the  great 
body  of  working  women  society  has  only  snubs  or  at  best  condescend- 
ing patronage.  Contempt  for  those  of  the  sex  who  work  for  wages 
is  deliberately  fostered.  In  a  private  school  in  this  city  the  young 
girls  when  instructed  in  deportment  are  warned  against  walking  on 
the  west  or  east  side  avenues  at  six  o'clock  or  thereabouts,  and  adjured 
never  to  appear  on  the  street  with  ungloved  hands,  and  all  this  that 
they  may  not  be  mistaken  for  working  girls.  Could  snobbishness  go 
farther?  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  in  order  to  escape  so  dis- 
graceful (?)  a  fate  as  that  of  being  compelled  to  support  themselves, 
girls  should  resort  to  all  manner  of  unwomanly  and  indelicate  maneu- 
vers to  secure  rich  husbands.  If  a  girl  is  without  money,  and  if  she 
may  not  earn  it,  she  has  no  choice  but  to  endeavor  to  marry  it,  and  if 
the  spectacle  of  a  girl  paying  court  with  matrimonial  intent  to  rich 
men  is  repulsive,  the  blame  for  the  unwomanly  exhibition  should  be 
laid  at  the  door  of  society,  which  scorns  the  woman  who  works. 

This  petty  and  miserable   ambition  to  be  considered 


356  STUDIES  IK  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

among  the  non-producers  cannot  be  defended.  Were  it 
to  prevail  Society  would  go  to  pieces,  and  we  would  be 
reduced  to  a  state  of  savagery.  It  is  as  absurd  as  it  would  be 
to  treat  the  more  favored  of  our  fellow-beings  with  con- 
tempt, to  refuse  countenance  to  those  born  of  respectable 
parents,  and  to  treat  as  inferiors  the  men  who  succeed  in 
amassing  fortunes.  The  English  opera  composer  has  clev- 
erly pointed  out  the  folly  involved  in  such  a  course  when 
he  writes  : 

Spurn  not  the  nobly  born 

With  love  affected, 
Nor  treat  with  virtuous  scorn 

The  well  connected. 
High  rank  involves  no  shame  — 
We  boast  an  equal  claim 
With  him  of  humble  name 

To  be  respected  ! 

Spare  us  the  bitter  pain 

Of  stern  denials, 
Nor  with  lowborn  disdain 

Augment  our  trials. 
Hearts  just  as  pure  and  fair 
May  beat  in  Belgrave-square 
As  in  the  lowly  air 

Of  Seven  Dials 

But  if  this  is  ludicrous,  so  is  it  when  reversed;  and 
when  it  is  intimated  that  they  who  see  the  light  in  "  Seven 
Dials"  may  not  be  as  noble  and  pure  as  they  who  are 
born  in  "Belgravia,"  or  that  they  who  have  to  toil  in  the 
field  may  not  be  as  deserving  as  they  who  rest  in  a  palace. 
The  measure  of  all  things  in  this  world  should  be  personal 
worth  —  and  were  that  the  standard  by  which  men  and 
women  were  judged,  and  were  it  that  which  decided  their 
social  standing, 

How  many  then  should  cover  that  stand  bare  ! 
How  many  be  commanded  that  command  ! 


COURTESY   NEEDED.  357 

Arrogance,  however,  is  not  confined  to  the  would-be 
aristocrat.  There  are  upstarts  everywhere  who  embitter 
the  condition  of  those  dependent  on  them  for  work. 
Sometimes  employers  render  themselves  exceedingly  offen- 
sive to  the  poor  by  a  pretentious  assumption  of  superiority 
that  naturally  provokes  resentment.  They  have  a  certain 
air  about  them,  a  kind  of  patronizing  way,  an  insolent  con- 
descension, which  is  meant  to  wound,  and  does  wound,  the 
sensibilities  of  the  lowly.  Then  they  are  not  only  haughty 
and  imperious  themselves,  but  they  frequently  have  over- 
seers, foremen,  or  head-men  of  some  kind,  who  also  strut 
up  and  down  shop  or  office,  swagger  and  snub,  browbeat 
and  intimidate  those  who  are  placed  under  them.  Cring- 
ing and  fawning  in  the  presence  of  their  superiors,  these 
sycophantic  creatures  are  overbearing  and  impertinently 
supercilious  in  their  absence.  In  reading  accounts  of 
working  people  presenting  petitions  to  their  employers,  we 
have  been  unfavorably  impressed  with  the  manner  of  their 
reception.  It  has  oftentimes  been  rough,  rude,  and  if 
reasonably  courteous,  has  generally  been  frigid  enough  to 
freeze  out  all  hope  from  the  hearts  of  the  suppliants.  In 
some  instances,  even  when  merely  desiring  a  conference  to 
determine  a  question  of  right,  they  have  been  dismissed 
with  a  curt  word  or  two,  as  though  presuming  to  think  for 
themselves  was  an  unpardonable  offense.  They  are  made 
to  feel  that  they  are  only  artisans,  and  that  they  should  be 
thankful  for  having  the  opportunity  to  toil,  without 
attempting  to  have  a  voice  in  deciding  the  amount  of  their 
remuneration.  Lordly  capital  is  very  much  disposed  to 
treat  them  as  serfs,  or  as  it  delights  to  call  them,  "hands," 
presumably  because  it  seriously  doubts  whether  such  plainly 
dressed  people  can  have  "souls."  But  these  "hands," 
gentlemen,  are  very  coarse,  ugly,  hard  things,  and  if  you 
are  not  willing  to  consider  their  possessors  entitled  to  at- 
tention, it  may  be  that  these  "hands"  will  overlook  the 


358  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

respect  due  you — and  we  admit  the  amount  is  not  enor- 
mous— and  help  themselves  to  what  they  regard  as  their 
own,  and  if  opposed  may  clutch  at  and  tear  out  your  heart. 
Kest  assured,  in  the  long  run  arrogance  will  not  pay  in 
commercial  or  industrial  circles.  It  only  alienates,  inten- 
sifies rivalries,  and  renders  the  solution  of  existing  prob- 
lems more  doubtful  and  uncertain.  No  one  is  benefited  by 
it.  The  employer  is  not,  for  if  he  is  haughty  with  his  men, 
his  men  will  not  hesitate  to  repay  him  by  neglecting  his 
interests ;  and  the  men  are  not,  for  if  they  are  made  to  feel 
that  they  are  looked  down  on,  they  will  grow  morose  and 
gloomy,  and  will  injure  themselves  and  their  families  by 
unnecessary  and  unprofitable  strikes.  Better  far  the  spirit 
of  kindly  concern  for  the  industrious,  and  a  modest  bear- 
ing when  dealing  with  them.  They  appreciate  courtesy, 
and  they  deserve  it ;  and  moreover,  the  true  gentleman 
will  never  fail  to  evince  it,  whether  he  has  intercourse  with 
rich  or  poor.  Only  insolent  vulgarity  determines  the  de- 
gree of  politeness  to  be  shown  by  the  quality  of  a  man's 
coat. 

Fourthly,  divisions  are  irrational  and  criminal  when 
they  result  in  riot  and  anarchy.  Eecent  events,  not  only 
in  Europe,  but  in  the  United  States,  and  especially  in 
Chicago,  call  for  renewed  attention  to  this  important 
truth.  When  our  government  was  founded,  Thomas  Paine 
represented  in  glowing  terms  the  enthronement  and  coro- 
nation of  law.  Kings  had  been  overthrown,  and  the  era 
of  tyranny  was  ended,  that  the  reign  of  Constitutional  free- 
dom, order  and  reason  might  begin.  This  mighty  revolu- 
tion brought  our  citizens  closer  to  the  divine  ideal  than 
any  previous  nation  had  been  brought.  And  now,  how- 
ever far  we  may  have  departed  from  it  in  practical  affairs, 
law  in  America  is  publicly  avowed  to  be  the  only  sovereign 
under  God  to  whom  we  owe  allegiance.  If  that  allegiance 
shall  be  thrown  off,  if  the  masses  become  faithless  to  their 


ANARCHY    DEFINED.  359 

monarch,  it  would  transform  our  country  into  the  likeness 
of  the  stormy  Greek  republic,  that  brilliant  meteor  of  lib- 
erty which  flashed  for  a  moment  on  the  night  of  oppression 
and  disappeared  forever.  It  is  not,  therefore,  without 
solicitude  that  every  patriot  in  this  land  contemplates  the 
appearance  of  anarchists,  nor  without  horror  that  they  read 
their  incendiary  programmes,  or  hear  of  or  witness  their 
villainous  deeds.  Every  such  patriot  will  be  moved  to 
indignation,  and  will  echo  the  sentiment  of  Carlyle  :  "All 
anarchy,  all  evil,  all  injustice  is  by  the  nature  of  it  *  *  * 
suicidal,  and  cannot  endure.  Arrangement  is  indispen- 
sable to  man ;  arrangement,  were  it  grounded  only  on  that 
old  primary  evangel  of  force,  with  scepter  in  the  shape  of 
hammer  I"  And  every  such  loyal  citizen  will  be  brave 
enough  to  announce  himself  as  did  Luther,  when  he  cried : 
"  Wheresoever  disorder  may  stand  or  lie,  let  it  have  a  care; 
here  is  the  man  who  has  declared  war  with  it,  that  will 
never  make  peace  with  it.  Man  is  the  missionary  of  order; 
he  is  the  servant,  not  of  the  devil  and  of  chaos,  but  of  God 
and  the  universe." 

When  the  Commune  was  the  topic  of  conversation  in 
France,  and  when  its  doings  filled  the  columns  of  the 
French  newspapers,  a  little  child  is  reported  to  have  asked 
its  mother,  "What  is  Communism?"  Many  erroneous 
opinions  existed  at  that  time,  just  as  at  present  conflicting 
ideas  are  entertained  regarding  the  agitators  who  have 
drawn  the  attention  of  the  world  to  them  of  late  by  their 
violent  speeches  and  their  dastardly  acts.  We  may  well 
ask  what  is  Anarchy  ?  Few  stop  to  inquire  and  few  have 
any  just  conception  of  its  real  character.  Yet  if  it  is  to  be 
dealt  with  intelligently,  its  views  and  aims  ought  to  be 
understood.  Fundamentally  it  differs  from  the  Commune. 
The  Commune  believes  in  merging  the  individual  in 
the  State  ;  Anarchy  would  merge  the  State  in  the  indi- 
vidual. The  first  would  have  everything  owned  and  con- 


360  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

trolled  by  the  central  authority,  who  should  administer  on 
the  principle  of  share  and  share  alike ;  the  second  would 
have  no  authority  anywhere.  It  is  individualism  run  mad. 
The  theory  of  Bakounine,  Herzen  and  the  nihilistic  school 
of  Sociology  is,  substantially,  the  reformation  of  Society 
by  its  abrogation  ;  a  remedy  as  efficacious  as  the  decapita- 
tion of  a  monarch  to  cure  him  of  tyranny.  They  argue 
that  the  world  is  overmuch  governed,  and  that  as  the 
people  are  better  off  where  there  is  least  government — as  in 
America — none  at  all  would  mean  perfect  happiness  and 
prosperity.  Rousseau's  "state  of  nature"  underlies  their 
reasoning  and  their  hopes.  The  fallacy  involved  in  their 
position  may  be  easily  illustrated.  Too  much  food  is  an 
injury  to  the  body,  and  excessive  labor  breaks  it  down  ; 
but  would  it  not  be  absurd  to  argue  that  as  moderation  in 
eating  and  working  are  promotive  of  health,  we  would  be 
stronger  and  better  off  were  we  to  dispense  with  both  ? 
Steam  is  an  important  force,  but  for  it  to  be  available 
certain  machinery  must  be  constructed.  At  the  beginning 
of  its  application  the  machinery  was  comparatively  rude 
and"  cumbersome.  During  recent  years  it  has  been 
modified  and  simplified ;  but  what  would  be  thought 
of  our  sanity  were  we  to  insist  that  steam  could  be  utilized 
without  any  machinery  at  all?  In  h}rgiene  and  mechanics 
true  wisdom  adapts  means  to  the  end,  and  does  not  abro- 
gate them  altogether.  So  in  Society,  its  welfare  and  hap- 
piness depend  on  the  exactness  wherewith  government  is 
fitted  to  accomplish  these  desirable  results;  and,  though 
we  are  not  so  infatuated  as  to  allege  that  government  in 
the  United  States  is  perfect,  we  believe  that  it  is  the  most 
perfect  instrument  of  its  kind  in  existence. 

The  methods  by  which  this  fateful  theory  expects  to 
actualize  itself  are  in  keeping  with  its  essential  principles, 
and  are  as  vicious  as  its  aims  are  visionary.  They  are 
directed  against  religion  and  civilization,  and  their  battle 


THE   LAST   ARGUMENT.  361 

word  is  "Destruction."  As  the  theory  contemplates  the 
overthrow  of  everything,  the  logical  sequence  is  attempts 
to  overthrow.  A  recent  journal  does  not  hesitate  to  advise 
incendiary  methods,  and  with  great  precision  points  out 
how  easily  500  men  could  destroy  property  and  life.  A 
writer  in  Ohio  of  good  repute  puts  himself  on  record  thus 
unmistakably  and  violently: 

The  capitalists'  golden  bags  and  the  bondholders  have  denied  us 
all  rights.  They  would  make  us  slaves.  Our  only  hope  is  in 
earnest,  organized  action.  Burn,  kill,  and  destroy  until  we  force 
the  autocrats  to  terms.  We  have  lost  hope  in  God,  hope  in  humanity, 
and  hope  in  the  world  at  large.  Let  every  man  do  his  duty.  This 
is  a  time  when  the  workingman  will  either  become  a  slave  or  a 
master.  Choose  between  the  two,  and  choose  at  once.  Let  us  give 
no  quarter  and  ask  none;  only  let  us  stand  by  each  other,  and  each 
man  at  his  post.  If  we  must  die,  let  us  die  like  men  and  not  slaves. 

And  Herr  Most,  naturally  enough,  opens  the  columns 
of  his  murderous  paper  to  the  following  recommendations 
and  threats: 

Where  there  is  no  capital  there  are  no  capitalists  and  conse- 
quetly  no  rule  of  capital.  The  consideration  that  after  such  -a  war 
of  destruction  everything  must  be  reproduced  by  the  hands  of 
laborers  cannot  deter  from  obtaining  victory  by  universal  destruction, 
if  victory  cannot  be  won  in  any  other  way.  It  is  better  that  man- 
kind should  reproduce  from  the  foundation  all  its  material  wealth 
than  that  it  should  live  between  mountains  of  wealth  like  beasts  of 
burden,  and  should  die  off  like  dogs.  With  their  present  experience, 
knowledge,  and  natural  resources  the  working  part  of  mankind  are 
able  to  produce  ten  times  the  amount  they  want.  Look  at  the  United 
States  of  America!  More  than  nine-tenths  of  all  the  wealth  existing 
there  has  been  produced  within  a  century.  A  single  generation 
would  now  be  enough  to  reproduce  all  that  exists  after  its  destruc- 
tion. 

We  shall,  therefore,  confiscate  where  we  can,  and  destroy  where 
there  remains  no  other  remedy.  This  and  nothing  else  is  the  last 
argument  of  the  revolutionists . 

That  this  "  last  argument  "  is  not  meaningless  in  the 


362  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

mouth  of  these  fanatics,  witness  the  assassinations  in 
Kussia,  the  disturbances  in  Belgium,  the  dynamite  out- 
rages in  England,  and  the  bomb-throwing  in  Chicago.  In 
the  latter  city  the  curious  sight  has  more  than  once  been 
presented  of  a  company  of  anarchists  proceeding  to  hold 
a  public  meeting  escorted  by  policemen — the  guardians  of 
law  countenancing  those  whose  avowed  purpose  was  the 
subversion  of  law.  Singular,  such  a  spectacle!  It  only 
needed  the  appointment  by  the  chief  of  a  "squad"  to 
protect  Fagin  when  about  to  train  ingenuous  youth  in  the 
thieves'  art  to  complete  the  amazing  incongruity.  Prob- 
ably even  this  favor  to  the  scourges  of  Society  has  not  been 
withheld  by  the  authorities,  who  seem  anxious  for  every  man, 
however  great  a  rascal  he  may  be,  to  sit  under  the  national 
"  vine  and  fig  tree  with  no  one  to  molest  or  make  him 
afraid."  It  may  be  said  on  behalf  of  municipal  officials 
that  they  could  not  believe  that  the  loud-mouthed  revolu- 
tionists would  ever  attempt  to  put  into  execution  their 
villainous  plans.  It  may  be  so;  and  we  have  no  desire  to 
indulge  in  criminations.  But  whatever  doubts  may  have 
been  entertained,  the  fearful  explosion  in  Haymarket 
square,  and  the  subsequent  disclosures  of  a  plot  to  destroy 
Chicago,  must  forever  have  removed.  That  event,  as 
cowardly  as  it  was  cruel,  not  only  cost  the  lives  of  many 
brave  men — honor  to  their  memory — but  made  plain  the 
fact  that  the  threats  of  anarchists  are  not  the  idle  vapor- 
ings  of  frenzied  dreamers:  they  are  rather  the  avowal  of  a 
deliberate  purpose  on  the  part  of  cool-headed  and  hard- 
hearted agitators,  who  intend,  if  possible,  to  raze  our  civ- 
ilization to  its  foundations.  There  can  be  no  mistake; 
and  the  time  has  come  for  Society  to  shield  itself  from 
these  enemies;  and  it  cannot  do  so  more  effectively  than  by 
insisting  on  the  maintainance  of  law  and  order  as  abso- 
lutely indispensable  to  its  prosperity  and  progress. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  and  should  be  reiterated 


VALUE   OF   CIVIC   ORDER.  -363 

until  it  becomes  a  popular  conviction,  that  the  sovereignty 
of  order  is  closely  related  to  the  highest  and  truest  educa- 
tion of  humanity.  Such  education  is  not  a  matter  of 
mere  instruction,  is  not  so  much  what  we  impart  as  what 
we  draw  out.  The  development  of  resources,  particularly 
the  unfolding  of  the  power  of  self  government,  is  its  most 
notable  achievement.  To  attain  this  there  must  be  sub- 
mission. Those  schools  are  the  best  where  discipline  is  the 
best.  Let  a  child  grow  up  in  a  family  where  there  is  no 
enforcement  of  parental  authority,  and  the  chances  are  he 
will  lack  stability  and  manly  strength.  A  course  of  train- 
ing in  a  college  where  there  is  no  oversight  will  generally 
complete  the  wreck.  From  such  homes  and  such  institu- 
tions there  generally  proceeds  a  type  of  character,  weak, 
wayward,  worthless.  There  may  be  brilliant  qualities,  but 
there  will  be  no  firmness,  compactness,  or  ability  for  close 
application.  We  all  know  the  value  of  discipline  to  an 
army.  We  have  recognized  it  in  the  history  of  campaigns; 
we  saw  it  recently  in  the  magnificent  bearing  of  our  own 
police.  Undrilled  men  may  evince  splendid  courage,  but 
it  is  only  organized  bodies  that  can  be  used  effectively. 
Society  when  duly  governed,  by  the  obedience  it  demands 
calls  forth  self-restraint  and  other  soldierly  qualities.  It  is 
easy  to  be  lawless,  but  an  effort  is  required  to  obey.  Pre- 
cepts, exactions,  burdens  make  us  all  stronger  and  grander. 
Where  they  do  not  exist,  there  citizens  become  loose,  self- 
ish, reckless,  and  degenerate  as  rapidly  as  a  garden  where 
cultivation  has  ceased.  We  defy  anyone  to  give  an  instance 
of  a  community  where  the  checks  and  balances  of  justice 
have  been  ignored  that  has  not  been  disgraced  by  an  infe- 
rior manhood.  To  rule  well,  men  must  consent  to  be  ruled; 
and  where  they  arc  willing  to  be  ruled  there  they  will 
become  more  intelligent  and  capable,  and  will  render  their 
surroundings  worthier  themselves.  Proof  of  this  is  abun- 
dantly furnished  by  the  history  of  England  and  of  these 


304  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

States,  where  changes  of  the  most  admirable  kind  have  been 
successfully  introduced,  and  the  greatest  strides  toward  social 
regeneration  have  been  taken,  in  times  of  profound  peace, 
and  when  the  supremacy  of  law  has  been  most  cheerfully 
acknowledged.  It  is  the  fault  of  some  would-be  reformers 
that  their  brains  have  been  disordered  by  their  familiarity 
with  the  France  of  last  century;  and  they  haVe  deluded 
themselves  into  the  belief  that  revolution  is  in  reality  the 
only  hope  of  the  world — that  the  sun  of  the  present  era 
must  set  in  blood  if  the  sun  of  the  future  is  to  rise  in  un- 
clouded serenity.  As  we  have  shown  in  a  former  paper, 
revolutions  are  dangerous  experiments,  which  only  a  dema- 
gogue would  encourage.  And  it  ought  to  be  remembered 
where  they  appear  to  have  been  warranted  the  people  had 
been  deprived  of  or  had  never  enjoyed  the  ballot,  and  the 
circumstances  in  which  they  were  placed  were  unfavorable 
to  advantageous  changes.  In  free  countries  it  is  different.  In 
America,  for  instance,  there  is  large  liberty,  and  no  one  is 
forbidden  to  inaugurate  any  changes  so  long  as  he  keeps 
within  the  limits  of  the  law.  If  he  wishes  an  eight-hour  day 
the  Constitution  interposes  no  barrier;  even  if  he  desires  an 
amendment  to  the  fundamental  laAV  of  the  land  that  it  may 
be  made  compulsory,  he  may  obtain  it  if  he  can  educate  the 
public  mind  up  to  the  provision  and  thus  secure  votes. 
The  whole  machinery  of  politics  is  at  his  disposal.  If  he 
can  not  procure  it  by  peaceable  means,  he  will  accomplish 
nothing  by  violence.  Outrages  will  simply  alarm  capital, 
arrest  production,  and  deprive  multitudes  of  the  means  of 
subsistence.  Where  order  is  respected  there  can  be  greater 
clearness  of  discernment,  more  deliberation  in  debate,  and 
more  reliance  placed  in  the  conclusions  reached.  Respect 
also  for  religion  has  its  bearing  upon  all  endeavors  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  people  everywhere.  As  it  is 
grounded  in  the  principle  of  obedience,  and  as  it  tends  to 
humanize,  to  soften  the  heart,  to  make  vivid  the  responsi- 


RELIGION   AND   ORDER.  365 

bility  of  man  for  man,  it  prepares  the  way  for  the  fair  con- 
sideration of  every  righteous  demand.  It  has  realized  all 
of  the  little  brotherhood  that  exists  in  the  world,  has 
developed  conscience,  and  has  in  it  more  promise  of  the 
future  than  any  other  agency  under  heaven.  On  this  point 
Mr.  James  Kussell  Lowell  spoke  decisively  at  a  public  din- 
ner, where  some  of  the  guests  attempted  to  deride  Christi- 
anity. He  rebuked  the  sneers  of  the  convivial  skeptics  in 
terms  at  once  unsparing  and  unanswerable: 

The  worst  kind  of  religion  is  no  religion  at  all,  and  these  men, 
living  in  ease  and  luxury,  indulging  themselves  in  the  amusement  of 
going  without  religion,  may  be  thankful  that  they  live  in  lands  where 
the  gospel  they  neglect  has  tamed  the  beastliness  and  ferocity  of  the  men 
who,  but  for  Christianity,  might  long  ago  have  eaten  their  carcasses 
like  the  South  Sea  Islanders,  or  cut  off  their  heads  and  tanned  their 
hides  like  the  monsters  of  the  French  Revolution. 

When  the  microscopic  search  of  skepticism,  which  has  hunted  the 
heavens  and  sounded  the  seas  to  disprove  the  existence  of  a  Creator, 
has  turned  its  attention  to  human  society,  and  has  found  a  place  on 
this  planet,  ten  miles  square,  where  a  decent  man  may  live  in  decency, 
comfort,  and  security,  supporting  and  educating  his  children  unspoiled 
and  unpolluted — a  place  where  age  is  reverenced,  infancy  respected, 
manhood  and  womanhood  honored,  and  human  life  held  in  due 
regard — when  skeptics  can  find  such  a  place  ten  miles  square  on  this 
globe  where  the  gospel  has  not  gone  and  cleared  the  way  and  laid  the 
foundations  and  made  decency  and  security  possible,  it  will  then  be  in 
order  for  the  skeptical  literati  to  move  thither  and  ventilate  their 
views. 

If  Mr.  Lowell  is  warranted  by  facts  in  making  these 
statements,  how  insane  and  criminal  must  be  all  attempts 
to  undermine  the  influence  of  religion  and  the  authority 
of  law.  They  stand  together,  and  if  the  one  fall  the  other 
is  assuredly  doomed.  Unspeakably  wretched  would  we  be 
were  they  to  be  overborne,  or  were  we  compelled  to  abide 
where  their  sovereignty  was  continually  called  in  question 
and  assailed.  Who  would  choose  to  live  and  do  business  in 
a  land  where  perpetual  threats  are  fulminated,  and  where 


366  STUDIES   Itf  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

there  is  no  security  for  property  or  life?  Such  an  exist- 
ence would  be  unendurable.  A  fundamental  condition  of 
happiness  is  a  sense  of  safety.  To  be  obliged  to  carry 
weapons,  to  be  as  in  a  beleaguered  camp,  to  be  ever  watch- 
ing all  men  as  spies  and  traitors  would.be  excruciating 
torture.  Not  to  know  when  one  went  to  sleep  whether 
dynamite  would  not  wreck  home  and  family  before  morn- 
ing would  be  insufferable  and  maddening.  The  citizen 
would  be  miserable,  and  the  entire  community  would  be 
panic  stricken.  Then  disregard  of  law  carries  with  it  dis- 
regard of  obligations.  In  these  circumstances  there  could 
be  no  confidence,  no  trust,  and  no  concentrated  and  con- 
certed action  of  any  kind.  Suspicion  would  be  enthroned. 
Idleness  would  follow,  and  crime  would  not  be  far  off. 
Crime  is  anarchy,  and  crime  is  likewise  suffering  and 
sorrow.  When  order  is  preserved  all  of  these  conditions 
are  practically  reversed,  and  with  this  comes  peace,  content- 
ment, mutual  confidence,  and  material  prosperity. 

We  must  not,  however,  expect  to  succeed  in  maintain- 
ing the  authority  of  law  by  mere  arguments,  or  by  an 
appeal  to  the  common  sense  of  the  reckless  crew  who  are 
breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter.  Few  among 
them  can  be  convinced  by  sound  reasoning,  and  they  must 
be  taught  respect  for  government,  if  taught  at  all,  by  what 
Carlyle  calls  the  "  evangel  force."  A  limit  must  be 
recognized  in  the  matter  of  free  speech;  and  it  must  come 
to  be  regarded  as  liable  to  repression  when  used  as  an 
instrument  to  stir  and  inflame  the  passions  of  the  mob. 
Licentiousness  in  language  is  almost  as  reprehensible  as 
licentiousness  in  conduct,  and  not  infrequently  leads  to  the 
latter.  It  is  hard,  at  least  for  us,  to  perceive  why  an 
agitator  addressing  a  crowd  of  disaffected  spirits,  and 
urging  them  to  burn  and  kill  should  be  treated  leniently 
as  though  entirely  harmless,  while  a  cracksman  or  assassin 
if  discovered  planning  with  a  few  associates  some  nefarious 


RESPONSIBLE   SPEECH.  367 

deed  would  promptly  be  arrested.  Would  such  arrest  be  an 
invasion  of  the  sacred  rights  of  free  speech  ?  And  if  it  would 
not,  why  should  one  man  be  permitted  to  counsel  crimi- 
nal actions,  while  the  other  is  debarred  from  the  glorious 
privilege?  Is  not  the  one  at  heart  as  much  of  a  robber  as 
the  other,  and  is  he  any  the  less  a  criminal  because  he 
insists  that  he  speaks  in  behalf  of  political  reform? 
We  do  not  object  to  either  aliens  or  citizens  airing  all 
kinds  of  opinions  in  public,  and  we  are  willing  to 
listen  to  the  avowal  of  any  heresy  they  may  please 
to  cherish,  or  to  the  severest  criticism  of  our  insti- 
tutions. Such  discussion,  even  when  it  degenerates  into 
scurrilous  twaddle,  may  not  be  without  value.  It  is  at 
least  a  safety  valve,  and  we  have  no  Constitutional  right  to 
prevent  any  inflammable  individual  from  relieving  himself 
of  the  burning  thoughts  that  consume  him.  If  he  wishes 
to  prove  that  ownership  in  land,  or  in  stocks,  or  in  money, 
is  contrary  to  some  imaginary  law  of  nature,  he  has  a  perfect 
right  to  undertake  the  task;  and  if  he  can  bring  the  nation 
to  agree  with  him,  he  is  at  liberty  to  do  so.  But  here  his 
liberty  ends.  If  he  shall  presume  to  go  further,  and  shall 
seek  to  incite  a  small  company  or  a  large  one  to  put  his 
theories  in  practice  by  acts,  which  the  statutes  of  the  land 
define  as  crimes,  he  voluntarily  ranks  himself  with  other 
outlaws  and  must  be  dealt  with  as  such.  He  is  only  a 
more  pretentious  kind  of  housebreaker,  and  in  the  interest 
of  Society  at  large  must  be  summarily  suppressed.  To 
permit  him  to  advocate  methods  which  subvert  the  rights 
of  property,  life  and  happiness,  secured  to  the  people  by 
their  Great  Charter,  would  be  treason,  not  only  against 
morality,  but  against  freedom  as  well.  In  these  circum- 
stances the  evangel  "Force "must  be  invoked,  and  the 
enemies  of  order  must  be  restrained,  even  if  a  place  has  to 
be  found  for  them  behind  the  bars  of  a  prison. 

From  what  we  have  noted  in  this  paper  regarding  the 


368  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

unhappy  aud  dangerous  tendencies  of  divisions  which  pre- 
vail in  Society,  it  must  be  evident  that  grave  responsibilities 
rest  upon  us  all;  and  that  for  the  common  weal  we  should 
do  everything  in  our  power  to  diminish  existing  breaches, 
and  prevent  them  from  becoming  the  avenues  of  innumer- 
able evils.  We  should  not  permit  ourselves  to  be  disheart- 
ened or  discouraged  by  them.  That  were  a  coward's  folly. 
Let  us  never  forget  that  strife  has  its  place  and  its  mission, 
and  that  no  ill  will  proceed  from  it  if  it  can  be  kept  within 
legitimate  bounds.  The  sea,  however  tempestuous,  is  no 
enemy  to  the  land  as  long  as  its  proud  waves  are  stayed  by 
the  divinely  appointed  barrier.  What  the  Rev.  James 
Martineau  has  said  of  the  spiritual  world  is  equally  true  of 
the  secular:  • 

Yes,  these  are  our  signs  that  we  are  on  the  march,  and  with  the 
moving  host  of  God's  providence,  and  have  not  stepped  aside  and 
fallen  asleep  while  the  centuries  sweep  past.  Varieties  are  the  marks 
of  life,  the  tokens  of  promise;  it  is  death  that  knows  no  change. 

The  discussions  and  agitations  of  the  hour  then  are  not 
without  their  cheering  side.  They  indicate  that  Society 
is  awake,  has  fallen  into  no  torpor,  and  is  struggling  for- 
ward toward  better  things.  We  must  forever  banish  the 
expectation  of  uniformity,  and  must  neither  fret  nor 
bluster  because  it  is  unattainable.  Rest  assured  you  can- 
not 

Tread  the  world 

Into  a  paste,  and  thereof  make  a  smooth 
Uniform  mound  whereon  to  plant  your  flag, 
The  lily-white,  above  the  blood  and  brains. 

What  Browning  further  says  concerning  this  inevitable 
trend  in  the  direction  of  divergency  may  well  be  thought- 
fully considered: 

Man  is  made  in  sympathy  with  man 

At  outset  of  existence,  so  to  speak; 

But  in  dissociation,  more  and  more, 

Man  from  his  fellows,  as  their  lives  advance 


THE   MISSION    OF    DISCORD.  3G9 

In  culture:  still  humanity,  that's  born 
A  mass,  keeps  flying  off,  pining  away 
Even  into  a  multitude  of  points, 
And  ends  in  isolation,  each  from  each. 

There  are  scientists  who  in  similar  terms  describe  the 
origin  of  the  planetary  system.  From  one  molten  central 
mass  they  claim  that  gleaming  orbs  proceeded,  being 
thrown  off  in  the  maddening  whirl  of  the  parent  sun. 
According  to  their  theory,  the  entire  universe  has  tended 
from  unity  to  multiformity,  from  simplicity  to  complexity; 
and,  admitting  what  they  defend  so  eloquently,  is  it  not 
manifest  that  this  irruption  and  disturbance  has  ended  in 
sublimer  and  more  beneficent  order  and  harmony  than  pre- 
vailed during  the  monotonous  reign  of  primal  chaos?  Is 
there  not  in  this  wonderful  formation  of  diverse  worlds, 
and  in  this  sweet  concord  and  cooperation  of  them  all,  a 
lesson  for  those  who  grow  wearied  and  distressed  with  the 
ceaseless  divisions  which  appear  on  every  side  in  village, 
town  and  city?  These  too  are  unavoidable,  and  these  like- 
wise, if  not  abused,  must  work  together  for  the  general 
good.  Instead  of  denouncing  them  and  cursing  them,  we 
should  rather  seek  to  understand  them,  and  should  do  our 
utmost  to  render  them  tributary  to  social  development  and 
happiness.  If  this  is  to  be  done,  it  is  imperative  that  a 
candid  and  conciliatory  spirit  be  cultivated.  It  should 
never  be  forgotten  that  there  is  always  something  com- 
mendable and  just  at  the  heart  of  doctrines  and  systems, 
which,  taken  as  a  whole,  are  most  cruel  and  pernicious. 
There  is  no  error  all  error,  no  evil  all  evil,  and  even  no 
truth  all  truth.  Shades,  gradations,  and  degrees  are 
inseparable  from  everything  of  man's  devising,  and  the 
absolutely  perfect  comes  neither  from  his  brain  nor 
hand. 

Socialism  itself  is  not  without  some  redeeming  features. 
Its  plea  for  more  brotherhood  in  human  relations,  its  asser- 
24 


370  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

tion  of  equality,  its  demand  for  a  fairer  share  of  the  bless- 
ings of  earth,  and  its  protest  against  the  squalid  animalism 
to  which  multitudes  are  doomed,  are  not  without  reason, 
and  they  have  not  been  without  effect.  The  endeavors  of 
its  advocates  have  roused  the  attention  of  serious  and 
kindly  people  to  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  toiling 
poor,  have  led  to  measures  of  relief  and  to  thoughtful  dis- 
cussions of  the  remedies  best  fitted  to  heal  the  gaping 
wounds  of  our  times.  In  our  condemnation  of  their  fool- 
ish and  mischievous  recommendations,  let  us  not  be  blind 
to  what  is  sound  and  wholesome,  and  let  us  not  over- 
look the  services  which  they  have  performed.  Everyone 
should  keep  his  eyes  open  to  "the  soul  of  good  in  evil 
things,"  and  if  he  does,  he  will  often  see  some  evil  even  in 
the  soul  of  good.  The  more  familiar  he  becomes  with  the 
opinions  of  others,  and  the  more  he  probes  the  merits  of 
his  own,  he  will,  unless  he  is  hopelessly  obtuse  or  bigoted, 
incline  toward  modesty,  forbearance  and  charity.  This 
generous  and  benignant  temper  cannot  fail  to  promote  a 
better  understanding  between  rivals  and  factions,  and  must 
conduce  to  a  rational  settlement  of  many  open  and  bitter 
ruptures  which  now  disgrace  community. 

But  in  addition  to  the  spirit  of  candor,  if  we  are  to  escape 
from  present  perils  we  must  foster  on  the  part  of  the  intelli- 
gent and  well-to-do  classes  a  more  direct  and  personal 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  ignorant  and  unfortunate. 
Mr.  Jay  Gould  is  reported  to  have  expressed  a  willingness 
to  exchange  half  his  fortune  for  the  power  of  an  eminent 
actor  to  sway  and  influence  an  audience.  Such  a  sacrifice 
is  not  necessary.  With  far  less  money  than  that,  were  he 
so  minded,  he  could  rouse  the  enthusiastic  praise  of  a 
nation,  and  produce  more  lasting  effects  than  all  the  players 
on  the  stage.  He  could  inaugurate  a  system  by  which  the 
thousands  of  persons  employed  in  the  service  of  the  various 
companies  he  represents  would  be  better  cared  for  than 


LEADERS   OF  THE    PEOPLE.  371 

they  are  now ;  and  thus  he  could,  with  just  a  little 
consideration,  and  a  very  moderate  pecuniary  loss,  be- 
come one  of  the  most  princely  benefactors  of  his 
country.  Let  him  also  apply  himself,  unbiased  by 
selfishness,  to  the  labor  problems  of  the  hour ;  let  him 
study  them,  not  merely  from  the  standpoint  of  the  capital- 
ist, but  from  that  of  the  patriot,  and  he  who  has  been  able 
to  acquire  the  enormous  wealth  he  possesses  would  doubt- 
less succeed  beyond  most  men  in  presenting  a  feasible  solu- 
tion. There  are  also  others  in  business  who  are  competent 
to  throw  light  on  these  questions  who  are  quite  absorbed  in 
mercenary  schemes  of  self-aggrandizement,  and  who  scarcely 
bestow  a  thought  on  their  less  prosperous  neighbors. 
Carlyle  describes  them  as  those  who  "have  made  money 
by  dealing  in  cotton,  dealing  in  bacon,  jobbing  scrip, 
digging  metal  in  California,"  and  who  "have  become  glit- 
tering man-mountains  filled  with  gold  and  preciosities/' 
"revered  by  the  surrounding  flunkies."  Unhappily  we 
have  many  such  characters  in  this  "  nineteenth  century  of 
illumination."  Not  long  since,  when  passing  the  house 
of  a  millionaire  noted  for  his  penuriousness  and  lack  of 
public  spirit,  a  friend  said  to  us  :  "He  ought  to  die,  and  a 
score  of  others  like  him  in  Chicago,  for  they  are  not  doing 
anything  for  art,  culture  or  religion,  and  were  they  only 
decently  buried,  their  estates  in  new  hands  might  be 
administered  more  usefully."  This  was  a  hard  saying,  and 
yet  justifiable  in  view  of  all  the  facts.  Commercial  chief- 
tains and  captains  of  industry  cannot  be  excused  from  the 
obligations  which  attach  to  their  positions  of  influence. 
They  are  the  natural  leaders  of  the  children  of  toil,  and 
they  cannot  be  indifferent  to  their  welfare  without  incur- 
ring guilt.  If  they  cannot  do  anything  else,  they  can 
imitate  Sir  John  Sinclair,  of  Scotland,  who  applied  himself 
to  the  development  of  trade,  that  his  fellow-countrymen 
might  be  enriched  ;  or  they  can  copy  the  course  pursued 


372  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

by  Mr.  Tangye,  of  England,  whose  care  of  his  workmen, 
some  two  thousand  in  number,  and  whose  concern  for  their 
advancement  in  intelligence  and  domestic  comfort  has 
rendered  strikes  next  to  impossible,  and  has  endeared  him 
to  all  who  serve  him  ;  or  they  can  tread  in  the  footsteps  of 
the  proprietors  of  the  Pillsbury  flouring  mill  at  Minne- 
apolis, who  have  distributed  to  their  men  from  year  to  year 
large  sums  in  addition  to  their  wages  as  their  share  in  the 
profits  of  the  business  ;  or,  at  least,  they  can  follow  the 
example  of  Robert  L.  Stuart,  of  New  York,  and  that  of  his 
brother  Alexander,  who  donated  upwards  of  $2,000,000 
to  hospitals,  schools  and  churches,  and  equally  with  them, 
the  generous  philanthropy  of  William  E.  Dodge,  who  has 
left  behind  him,  not  only  an  honorable  name,  but  a  noble 
heritage  for  the  lasting  benefit  of  mankind.  These  wise 
things  our  great  merchants  and  manufacturers  can  do,  and 
even  these  would  go  far  to  prevent  the  divisions  of  Society 
from  degenerating  into  fierce  feuds  and  disastrous  dis- 
ruptions. 

Editors,  reporters,  clergymen,  book-writers,  and  the 
entire  guild  whose  privilege  it  is  to  shape  and  guide  public 
opinion,  should  encourage  our  money-kings  in  such  works 
as  we  have  described;  and  they  should  be  also  faithful  to 
instruct  the  people  at  large  in  sound  principles  of  political 
economy.  They  will  not  do  much  to  avert  the  storm  if 
they  are  partisans,  especially  if  they  appear  to  be  mere 
apologists  and  defenders  of  the  affluent.  We  confess  to 
a  large  measure  of  disappointment  at  the  tone  of  current 
articles  and  volumes  on  the  labor  question.  Not  a  few  of 
them  seem  disposed  to  blame  the  working  classes  exclusively 
for  existing  misunderstandings,  and  have  little  else  to  say 
than  to  advise  submission  to  their  lot.  One  writer  tells 
them  that  there  is  not  enough  money  in  the  civilized  por- 
tions of  the  globe  to  warrant  better  wages  being  paid, 
though  Gladstone,  after  a  careful  computation,  has  clearly 


FALLACIES   OF   CAPITAL.  373 

shown  that  they  do  not  secure  anything  like  a  fair  propor- 
tion of  the  wonderful  increase  of  wealth  which  has  distin- 
guished our  times.  Another  has  informed  them  that  they 
can  subsist  comfortably  on  $200  a  year,  though  it  is  ques- 
tionable whether  the  gentleman  himself  would  like  to 
undertake  the  experiment.  And  still  another  has  written 
on  the  "  Wages  of  Capital/'  and  has  claimed  because  three 
or  four  per  cent  interest  bearing  bonds  were  eagerly  sought 
that  that  rate  indicates  what  the  ordinary  earnings  of  cap- 
ital are.  He  knows  or  ought  to  know  that  this  is  an  error. 
Mr.  Vanderbilt,  Mr.  Gould,  and  others  similarly  success- 
ful, never  accumulated  their  millions  through  three  per 
cent  investments  of  any  kind.  The  fact  that  large  sums 
can  be  borrowed  by  the  government  for  so  meager  a  com- 
pensation simply  indicates  that  some  men  have  on  hand 
more  cash  than  they  know  what  to  do  with,  which  would 
not  be  the  case  had  not  capital  earned  out  of  all  proportion 
to  labor;  and  is  no  criterion  of  the  actual  remuneration 
expected  and  received  when  capital  is  applied  to  the  various 
industries.  Moreover,  is  it  not  strange,  if  the  wages  of 
capital  are  as  low  as  some  persons  try  to  make  out,  and  if 
those  of  labor  are  relatively  far  higher,  that  the  representa- 
tives of  the  former  should  be  able  to  build  palatial  res- 
idences, drive  expensive  horses,  sail  luxurious  yachts,  and 
maintain  mansions  by  the  sea  shore,  while  the  representa- 
tives of  the  latter  frequently  find  it  difficult  to  keep  soul 
and  body  together?  When  the  enjoyments  of  life  are  so 
one-sided,  is  it  not  natural  to  conclude  that  its  rewards  are 
so  also,  and  on  the  same  side?  Such  statements  as  we 
have  hastily  glanced  at  are  altogether  too  partial  and  too 
biased  for  them  to  pass  unchallenged.  They  mislead  those 
who  have  not  time  to  investigate  for  themselves,  and  they 
are  so  faulty  as  to  fail  entirely  in  satisfying  the  discontented 
for  whom  they  are  evidently  designed.  Though  they  may 
be  fathered  by  clergymen,  or  adopted  by  editors  who  swear 


374  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

that  they  love  the  dear  people,  they  are  so  supereminently 
partisan  that  they  fly  wide  of  their  mark.  If  these  leaders 
of  opinion  are  really  to  do  anything  to  abate  the  bitterness 
of  controversy,  and  if  they  are  to  compose  disputes,  take 
the  virus  out  of  warring  tongues,  and  unify  rather  than 
further  divide  communities,  they  must  learn  to  be  more 
just  and  considerate.  We  do  not  say  that  they  must  be 
blind  to  the  blunders  and  vices  of  the  poor,  or  that  they 
must  misrepresent  and  denounce  the  rich.  Far  from  it. 
Let  them  deal  fairly  by  both,  show  each  his  errors,  and 
attempt  to  lay  down  principles  of  action  that  will  in  their 
working  prove  advantageous  to  all. 

Neither  let  them,  nor  any  others  who  desire  social  ad- 
vancement, wax  impatient,  because  the  work  they  have  at 
heart  makes  not  more  rapid  progress.  We  must  all  learn 
to  make  haste  slowly.  Bewildering  millions  of  years,  scien- 
tists asssure  us,  were  needed  to  develop  our  globe,  to  sub- 
due its  conflicting  and  destructive  forces,  and  to  adjust  and 
balance  its  warring  elements  before  it  was  a  suitable 
dwelling  place  for  man.  That  the  Almighty  fashioned 
and  furnished  it  at  a  stroke,  effected  everything"  by  one 
creative  fiat,  is  now  generally  discredited.  Is  it  not  then 
reasonable  to  believe  that  Society,  however  active  the  agen- 
cies may  be  which  are  engaged  on  its  construction,  must 
also  demand  many  centuries  before  its  divisions  can  be 
healed,  or  can  be  so  modified,  restrained,  and  governed  as 
to  render  them  innoxious?  England  claims  that  her  Con- 
stitution is  a  growth,  the  result  of  various  and  instructive 
experiences;  and  in  a  sense  this  holds  good  of  Society. 
While  men  are  planning,  devising,  experimenting,  only 
that  survives  which  has  been  sifted  out  of  heaps  of  rubbish, 
and  which  has  been  subjected  to  the  refining  and  testing 
fires  of  trial.  This  law  no  human  art  or  skill  can  evade  or 
suspend.  It  is  as  operative  now  as  in  the  past,  and  will 
prevail  in  the  future.  The  expectation  entertained  in 


THE    PRESENT    DUTY.  375 

> 

some  enthusiastic  circles  that  a  wonderful  coup  d'  etat  will 
happily  end  all  controversies  and  bring  in  an  era  of  uni- 
versal harmony,  is  delusive:  as  delusive  as  that  other  coup 
d'  etat  which  elevated  Napoleon  III.,  but  which  did  not 
regenerate  France,  and  which  ended  in  the  humiliation  of 
Sedan.  There  is  no  royal  and  easy  road  to  the  Millenium, 
but  only  a  rugged  path,  with  many  turnings  and  many 
pitfalls.  The  men  who  are  impatient,  who  would  destroy 
as  the  surest  means  of  saving,  who  would  kill  as  the  only 
method  of  preserving  alive,  and  who  would  dash  over  the 
cataract  rather  than  go  round  by  the  canal  are  not  reliable 
guides.  It  never  seems  to  occur  to  them  that  frequently 
"  the  longest  way  round  is  the  shortest  road  home."  Like 
Alexander  they  would  cut  the  Gordian  knot,  never  perceiv- 
ing that  following  the  conquest  of  Asia  conies  the  fatal 
excesses  of  Babylon. 

"  Tis  the  time's  plague  when  madmen  lead  the  blind." 

And  this  plague  appears  to  have  smitten  the  age  with 
terrible  virulence,  and  cranks  of  every  type  have  become  the 
oracles  of  unlettered  thousands.  Deplorable  as  their  mad- 
ness is  in  many  respects,  never  is  it  more  pernicious  than 
when  it  scorns  all  precedents,  and  attempts  to  accomplish  in 
a  moment  changes  that  can  only  be  wisely  and  permanently 
effected  deliberately  and  with  the  intelligent  concurrence 
of  the  people.  Patience  then  is  indispensable.  Waiting 
must  supplement  hoping.  The  tedious  and  fatiguing  work 
of  investigation,  arguing,  and  reforming  must  go  on,  and 
the  end  all  lovers  of  their  kind  have  in  view  be  brought, 
about  by  judicious,  though  not  corrupt,  i  idirectness  and 
concession,  and  possibly  by  sagacious  compromises.  Weari- 
ness Avill  often  be  felt;  but  then  the  goal,  far  off,  yet  ever 
coming  nearer,  should  strengthen  and  encourage.  And  all 
who  falter  by  the  way,  or  who  may  be  tempted  to  hazard 


376  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

d> 

everything  on  a  doubtful  experiment,  may  well  take  to 
themselves  the  counsel  addressed  by  Tennyson  to  Glad- 
stone : 

Statesman,  be  not  precipitate  in  thine  act 
Of  steering;  for  the  river  here,  my  friend, 
Parts  in  two  channels  moving  to  one  end: 
This  goes  straightforward  to  the  cataract; 

That,  streams  about  the  bend; 
But  tho'  the  cataract  seems  the  nearer  way — 
Whate'er  the  crowd  on  either  bank  may  say, 
Take  thou  the  "bend,"  t'will  save  thee  many  a  day. 


Till. 

THE  AMUSEMENTS   OF  SOCIETY. 

No  more  for  me  of  "  people's  privilege;" 
No  witnessing  "the  grand  old  comedy," 
CoCval  with  our  freedom  ;***** 

Such  outrage  done  the  public — Phaedra  named! 
Such  purpose  to  corrupt  ingenuous  youth! 
Such  insult  cast  on  female  character! — 
Why,  when  I  saw  that  bestiality — 
So  beyond  all  brute-beast  imagining, 
That  when,  to  point  the  moral  at  the  close, 
Poor  Salabaccho,  just  to  show  how  fair 
Was  "  Reconciliation,"  stripped  her  charms, 
That  exhibition  simply  bade  us  breathe, 
Seemed  something  healthy  and  commendable ; 
After  obscenity  grotesqued  so  much 
It  slunk  away  revolted  at  itself. 
Henceforth  I  had  my  answer  when  our  sage 
Pattern-proposing  seniors  pleaded  grave, 
"  You  fail  to  fathom  here  the  deep  design! 
All's  acted  in  the  interest  of  truth, 
Religion,  and  those  manners  old  and  dear 
Which  made  our  city  great. " 

— Robert  Broicning. 

A  MTJSEMENT,  as  generally  conducted  and  pursued 
-£j-  in  these  days,  is  a  very  serious  affair.  Play  is  fre- 
quently only  another  name  for  work,  and  diversion  is 
merely  an  additional  form  of  weariness.  Business  is 
hardly  more  exacting  and  exhausting  than  pleasure,  and 
to  comply  with  the  demands  of  both  usually  taxes  to  the 
utmost  even  an  iron  constitution.  The  item  of  cost  is  not 
the  least  grave  of  the  many  questions  to  be  considered  by 

377 


378  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  giving  or  attending  enter- 
tainments. They  are  generally  very  expensive.  An 
immense  sum  of  money  is  devoted  to  them  annually,  and 
far  more  than  they  are  worth,  and  far  more  than  any 
nation  can  afford  to  squander  in  such  a  way.  When  a 
man  in  moderate  circumstances  invites  a  few  friends  to 
spend  a  social  evening  with  him,  he  often  feels  bound  to 
provide  a  feast  beyond  his  means,  and  to  pay  for  which 
must  embarrass  him  through  several  months.  What  then 
must  be  the  drain  on  the  pecuniary  resources  of  those 
persons  who  breathe,  or  rather  pant,  in  the  atmosphere  of 
the  gay  world  ?  Attendance  on  balls  calls  for  an  extraor- 
dinary outlay  on  dress,  equipage  and  flowers,  and  the  same 
is  true  of  the  opera ;  and  it  is  not  uncommon  for  more  to 
be  wasted  on  such  occasions  than  the  reveler  contributes 
to  charity  in  a  year.  As  to  the  race-course,  it  generally 
leads  to  bankruptcy ;  and  this  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
when  a  jockey,  like  Archer,  has  earned  as  much  as  forty- 
three  thousand  dollars  in  a  single  year.  Opera-signers  are 
proverbially  high-priced,  and  their  remuneration  is  some- 
thing to  bewilder  honest  plodders  in  productive  industries. 
Thousands  upon  thousands  have  to  be  lavished  on  night- 
ingale-like warblers,  and  other  thousands  on  the  stage  and 
its  furniture  in  rendering  the  compositions  of  the  great 
masters.  Wagner  has  given  us  "the  music  of  the  future;" 
but  in  one  respect  it  is  like  that  of  the  past — it  is  exceed- 
ingly costly.  Theatres,  also,  are  high-priced  luxuries.  A 
dramatist  by  the  name  of  Simms  received  in  a  few  months 
one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars  for  a  play  entitled 
"In  the  Ranks,"  a  play  which  a  newspaper  describes  as  "a 
rank  piece  of  stuff."  A  portion  of  these  enormous  profits, 
surpassing  the  sums  paid  Tennyson  or  Carlyle  for  genuine  lit- 
erary work,  is  drawn  from  the  meager  earnings  of  the  poorer 
classes.  Artisans,  clerks,  petty  tradesmen,  day-laborers, 
commercial  travelers,  seamen,  soldiers,  and  multitudes  of 


EXACTION'S   OF    AMfSEMEXTS.  379 

others  whose  salaries  are  small,  are  found  among  the 
patrons  of  stage  and  concert-hall,  and  without  whose  ill- 
advised  extravagance  they  would  be  materially  reduced  in 
number.  This  prodigality  is  not  justifiable.  Are  we  not 
"paying  too  dear  for  our  whistle,"  even  though  it  may  be  a 
melodious  one?  Retrenchment  is  absolutely  a  duty. 
Should  not  frugality  be  cultivated  even  in  our  pleasures  ? 
But  aside  from  the  matter  of  expense,  the  most  popu- 
lar of  modern  amusements,  as  they  are  managed  at  pres- 
ent, are  far  too  exciting  for  the  good  of  their  supporters. 
They  do  not  tend  to  quiet,  calm,  and  relaxation.  Instead 
of  this,  many  of  them  unduly  strain  the  nervous  system, 
stimulate  excessively  the  brain,  and  intensify  into  danger- 
ous rapidity  the  action  of  the  heart.  They  rouse  to  the 
highest  pitch  the  feelings,  plunge  the  mind  into  a  madden- 
ing whirl,  and  often  leave  their  victim  a  prey  to  bewilder- 
ing emotions.  A  blood-and-tlmnder  play,  filled  with 
startling  incidents,  and  overflowing  with  grandiloquent 
sentiments,  is  like  a  fiery  intoxicant  which  inflames  and 
frenzies.  Audiences  are  ravished,  transported  out  of 
themselves,  are  shocked,  electrified,  and  overwhelmed  by 
gorgeous  scenery,  dazzling  dresses,  and  especially  by  the 
vicissitudes  of  lovers,  the  machinations  of  villains,  and 
the  soul-harrowing  deeds  of  tyrants  which  make  up  the 
prominent  features  of  the  ever-popular  melodrama.  The 
ballet  doubtless  affects  the  spectator  somewhat  differently  ; 
but  the  passion,  the  pruriency,  the  lasciviency  which  it 
ordinarily  invokes  throws  him  into  a  state  of  feverish 
delerium  or  of  debilitating  agitation.  Dances  at  balls  and 
parties  may  at  times  produce  deleterious  results,  not  of 
course  always  or  necessarily,  but  possibly,  particularly 
when  carried  to  excess.  Late  hours,  wine-bibbing, 
crowded  rooms,  glaring  light,  and  scanty  costumes,  that 
disclose  what  they  presumably  mean  to  hide,  all  tend  to  a 
high  degree  of  animation,  not  to  say  anything  of  a  proba- 


380  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

ble  flushed  and  over-wrought  condition  of  mind  and  body. 
We  need  to  realize  that  this  unnatural  excitement,  and  the 
consequent  drain  on  our  vitality,  unfit  us  for  the  practical 
duties  of  life.  From  what  has  entranced  us  on  the  stage 
how  difficult  to  turn  again  to  commonplace  and  monotonous 
toil.  With  the  fever  of  passion  scarcely  allayed  how  hard 
to  apply  ourselves  once  more  to  the  uninteresting  and 
fatiguing.  When  the  fair  forms  of  giddy  partners  of  the 
dance  disappear  from  our  side  in  the  gray  of  the  morning, 
their  shadows  will  still  attend  us  to  the  dreary  office  and 
the  begrimed  workshop,  and  the  haunting  memory  of 
their  fairy  beauty  will  add  to  the  uncouthness  and  un- 
sightliness  of  everything  about  us.  Such  experiences  were 
they  merely  occasional,  possibly  might  not  be  detrimental 
to  our  real  welfare  ;  but  when  they  are  continually  re- 
peated they  tend  to  dissatisfy  us  with  our  avocations  and 
to  disqualify  us  for  their  exacting  demands.  Then,  in 
thinking  on  this  subject,  the  remarkable  lack  of  self-con- 
trol on  the  part  of  most  pleasure-seekers  ought  to  be  taken 
into  account.  Moderation  is  not  a  virtue  they  usually  cul- 
tivate. If  any  particular  diversion  becomes  fashionable, 
they  dash  into  it  with  all  the  recklessness  of  barbarians, 
and  never  seem  to  know  when  to  stop.  If  some  kind  of 
dance  is  the  rage,  they  perpetually  whirl  in  it  from  even- 
ing to  evening  and  from  house  to  house.  Should  "  Pro- 
gressive Euchre"  occupy  the  attention  of  "Upper  ten- 
dom"for  a  season,  they  speedily  convert  it  into  "exces- 
sive" euchre,  and  the  talk  of  drawing  rooms  is  tainted  and 
infected  with  idioms  familiar  to  the  gambling  fraternity. 
If  the  roller  skating  rink  comes  into  favorable  notice, 
straightway  it  is  made  a  dangerous  nuisance  by  those  who 
appear  incapable  of  understanding  that  even  a  thing  good 
in  its  way  may  be  abused,  and  may  be  pushed  too  far.  In 
a  word,  on  every  side  we  have  evidences  of  impetuosity 
and  intemperateness,  and  the  natural  reaction  is  expressed 


AMUSEMENT   AND  THE   CHURCH.  381 

by  the  terms  nervousness  and  prostration.  What  is  sup- 
posed to  be  sought  for  the  sake  of  relaxation  and  recupera- 
tion, in  reality  enervates,  and  ultimately  depresses  instead 
of  cheering.  This  fearful  perversion  of  that,  which  can 
only  be  justified  on  the  ground  of  the  refreshment  and  in- 
vigoration  it  yields,  is  inexcusable  ;  and  it  is  to  be  sincerely 
hoped  that  as  religion  and  education  extend  their  beneficent 
sway  sanctified  common-sense  will  not  merely  eliminate 
from  it  every  vicious  element,  but  will  pursue  it  with  wise 
discrimination  and  self-restraint. 

Let  it  not  be  concluded  from  what  we  have  written, 
that  we  are  disaffected  toward  amusements.  We  only  op- 
pose such  as  are  injurious,  and  the  hot  and  feverish  chase 
of  such  as  are  in  themselves  harmless.  Recreation  is  a 
necessity  of  our  being.  We  need  to  bend,  relax  and  be 
merry.  There  is  no  sin  in  cheerfulness,  and  no  iniquity 
in  play.  We  are  not  conscious  of  any  morbid  strictness 
on  this  subject ;  but  we  are  fully  convinced  that  the  perils 
connected  with  popular  diversions  make  their  selection  an 
affair  of  some  seriousness.  Yet  while  we  pen  this,  we  do 
not  desire  to  be  classed  with  those  persons  who  insist  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  supply  them,  and  to  guard 
what  she  furnishes  from  abuse.  Such  a  work  as  this  lies 
entirely  outside  of  her  mission.  It  is  doubtless  her  duty 
to  teach  moderation,  and  to  warn  against  the  evil  side  of 
worldly  pleasures;  but  she  is  under  no  obligation  to  con- 
vert herself  into  a  purveyor  of  even  innocent  folly.  Her 
vocation  is  far  different,  and  far  higher.  Let  her  adhere 
to  it.  There  is  something  humiliating  in  her  endeavors  at 
times  to  enter  into  rivalry  with  showmen  and  mounte- 
banks. Tableaux,  dramatic  dialogues,  spectacular  Christ- 
mas festivals,  conducted  in  courts  dedicated  to  prayer  and 
religious  instruction,  are  not  edifying  spectacles.  We  do 
not  say  they  are  sinful;  but  we  do  claim  that  they  are  out  of 
plaoe.  and  that  they  tend  to  impair  the  feeling  of  reverence 


382  STUDIES  1ST   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

which  the  house  of  God  should  awaken.  The  plea  that 
they  are  required  to  enable  Christianity  to  maintain  its 
hold  on  the  young,  is  weak  and  indefensible.  Not  much 
of  a  compliment  is  there  in  it  to  a  Faith  which  constantly 
affirms  the  divinity  of  its  origin  and  the  stability  of  its 
power.  It  insinuates  that  the  influence  of  this  faith  de- 
pends in  no  small  degree  on  trivialities  external  to  itself, 
and  to  the  interests  of  which  it  was  never  consecrated  by 
its  Founder.  We  are  fearful  if  its  grip  on  the  rising  gen- 
eration is  due  to  such  causes,  it  can  have  but  a  very  feeble 
grasp  on  the  moral  and  spiritual  life.  Xor  is  it  creditable 
to  the  friends  of  religion  when  they  have  recourse  to  the- 
atricals, more  or  less  disguised,  and  to  fairs  and  lottery 
schemes  to  meet  the  pecuniary  liabilities  they  have  as- 
sumed in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  fact  that  they  are 
able  to  provide  such  entertainments  and  make  purchases 
at  them,  precludes  the  supposition  that  they  are  too  poor 
to  meet  their  money  obligations.  Why.  then,  not  dis- 
charge them  without  employing  means  as  questionable  in 
character  as  they  are  in  reality  superfluous  ?  To  outsiders 
it  must  seem  as  though  Christ's  disciples  looked  for  some 
equivalent  in  kind,  some  sort  of  compensation  in  return 
for  what  they  give,  as  though  they  were  mercenary  and 
calculating,  and  as  though  they  doubted  the  certainty  of 
recompense  in  the  world  to  come.  Well,  "  they  have  their 
reward/'  They  get  what  they  bargained  for — the  gew- 
gaws, and  the  ice  cream — and  they  miss  the  approving 
word  of  the  Blessed  Master.  Let  them  not  imagine  that 
they  will  receive  both.  They  must  choose  between  them  ; 
for  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Lord  will  confer  on  them  a 
spiritual  blessing  in  exchange  for  money  which  has  been 
applied  to  his  cause  in  the  spirit  of  trade,  and  which  has 
degraded  it  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  But  even  were  these 
efforts  legitimate,  and  were  they  sufficient  to  meet  the 
craving  for  amusement  as  it  is  felt  in  some  quarters,  they 


RELIGIOUS   SHOWS.  383 

will  utterly  fail  in  the  majority  of  cases.  There  are  mul- 
titudes of  people  who  do  not  enjoy  the  coarse  comicalities 
of  funny  preachers,  who  are  not  refreshed  by  uproar- 
ious farces  enacted  in  prayer-meeting  rooms,  who  are  not 
entranced  and  invigorated  by  Sunday  school  children 
dressed  a  la  ballet  in  gauzy  costumes,  with  spangled  wings 
and  flesh-colored  tights,  presumably  to  represent  immature 
angels ;  and  neither  are  they  pleased  nor  diverted  by  the 
slang  and  cheap  jests  of  improvised  Kris  Kringles,  mak- 
ing their  appearance  magically  down  scenic  chimneys  con- 
structed in  the  chapel,  amid  all  the  gorgeous  radiance  of 
blue  and  red  fire.  If  they  are  to  have  such  things  at  all 
they  prefer  them  where  they  properly  belong,  in  the  circus 
and  theater ;  and  they  humbly  think,  if  these  tents  and 
buildings  and  what  goes  on  in  them  are  justly  condemned, 
the  Church  is  in  very  poor  business  when  she  cultivates  in 
the  young  a  taste  for  their  performances.  They  do  not 
declare,  any  more  than  we  do,  that  these  forms  of  amuse- 
ment are  necessarily  wicked,  but  only  that  the  temple  of 
God  is  no  place  for  them,  and  that  in  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  Stage,  the  Church  had  better  give  no  direct  or 
indirect  sanction  to  its  claims. 

If  tableaux,  amateur  theatricals,  and  other  entertain- 
ments of  a  harmless  nature  are  indispensable  to  recreation, 
let  them  be  given  at  home  or  under  the  auspices  of  private 
circles,  and  not  in  connection  with  religious  edifices,  or 
religious  services.  The  home  is,  after  all,  the  true  center 
of  everything  that  is  good  and  wholesome,  amusements  in- 
cluded, and  should  ever  be  made  attractive  and  restful. 
Parents  should  be  careful  that  they  drive  not  their  chil- 
dren by  undue  severity  from  the  domestic  hearth.  The 
ascetic  life  is  not  always  favorable  to  pity  or  morality. 
What  is  denied  in  the  family  is  often  sought  in  the  world 
and  frequently  ends  in  dissipation  and  corruption.  We 
believe  that  a  joyous  household,  where  games  and  plays 


384  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

of  various  kinds  are  generally  encouraged,  is  a  bulwark 
against  vice.  But  when  laughter  is  condemned,  when 
chess,  checkers,  and  an  occasional  dance  are  regarded  as 
among  the  works  of  the  devil,  it  would  seem  as  though  the 
young  were  thrust  out,  by  those  who  should  care  for  them 
most  tenderly,  to  brave  dangerously  seductive  temptations. 
God  help  them  when  this  is  the  case.  While  we  advocate, 
and  for  the  reason  assigned,  making  the  family  bright 
with  diversions,  we  also  believe  there  is  need  of  circum- 
spection on  the  part  of  fathers  and  mothers.  They  should 
avoid  the  approval  of  what  may  lead  to  bad  habits,  such  as 
wine-drinking  and  card-playing.  Most  of  them  will  ad- 
mit the  propriety  of  the  first  recommendation,  but  we  ap- 
prehend that  many  of  them  will  dispute  the  second. 
AVhat  harm  can  there  be,  they  will  ask,  in  a  friendly  game 
of  whist,  or  even  of  poker  ?  Perhaps  the  question  cannot 
be  answered  satisfactorily.  We  admit  that  we  are  biased 
as  to  the  merit  of  card-playing  :  we  dislike  it,  and  see  no 
good  whatever  in  it.  Had  we  our  way  we  would  abolish  it 
altogether,  and  blot  out  the  memory  of  it  from  mankind. 
In  our  mind  it  is  always  associated  with  gambling,  with 
low  dives,  with  idlers,  loafers  and  opium-smoking  celestial 
laundrymen,  and  with  deeds  of  darkness.  Cards  are 
thoroughly  disreputable.  They  have  no  character,  so  to 
speak,  and  to  us  seem  about  as  decent  as  a  set  of  burglars' 
tools  ;  and  we  would  as  soon  think  of  offering  the  latter  as 
a  means  of  entertainment  to  guests  as  the  former.  To 
this  the  reply  may  be  made  that  the  comparison  is  merely 
the  result  of  prejudice.  Possibly  ;  and  yet  are  they  not 
both  the  rogue's  implements,  and  are  they  not  both  inti- 
mately allied  with  crime  ?  Not  a  few  black-legs  declare 
that  they  acquired  the  skill  and  the  taste  which  have  viti- 
ated their  career  in  respectable  and  even  Christian  homes. 
They  there  learned  to  play,  and  then  their  cupidity  was 
excited  bv  the  small  sums  that  were  hazarded.  From  this 


THE   RACE  COURSE.  385 

early  school  they  went  forth  a  curse  to  themselves  and  to 
others.  It  is  no  sufficient  answer  to  say  that  they  might 
have  learned  elsewhere,  and  doubtless  would.  Yet  there 
is  a  doubt ;  and  what  we  plead  for  is  that  the  guardians  of 
youth  should  not  convert  this  doubt  into  a  certainty  ;  and 
that  they  should  not  help  to  fasten  on  their  offspring  a  per- 
nicious habit. 

But,  let  this  pass.  We  are  glad  when  we  hear  of  home 
amusements,  as  we  are  of  wholesome  out-door  recreations. 
Base  ball  and  lawn  tennis,  when  not  degraded  to  gambling 
games,  are  invigorating  and  healthful.  They  can  do  no 
one  any  harm;  yet,  let  us  be  honest,  they  do  very  little 
good  when  they  are  played  by  professionals.  Spectators 
are  not  strengthened;  and  in  sport,  whatever  may  be  true  of 
theology,  they  are  not  benefited  vicariously.  Fishing  and 
hunting  may  be  enjoyed  without  thought  of  evil,  and  other 
pleasures  which  nature  yields  may  be  tasted  with  a  con- 
sciousness of  innocence.  Would  that  we  had  more  of 
them,  and  would  that  we  sought  less  in  the  artificial  and 
more  in  the  real  the  recuperation  that  we  need!  Especially, 
would  that  the  public  regarded  the  race-course  with  sus- 
picion, and  appreciated  more  than  it  does  its  unadulterated 
perniciousness.  Thomas  Hughes,  writing  to  a  friend, 
deplores  the  naturalization  of  this  British  institution  in 
America.  He  declares  that  it  is  altogether  corrupt  and 
mischievous,  and  we  agree  with  him.  No  greater  curse, 
except  that  of  strong  drink,  can  be  fostered  by  any  coun- 
try. It  begets  gambling  in  its  worst  forms,  and  leads  to 
almost  every  kind  of  crime.  We  contend  that  it  is  entirely 
an  abuse  without  a  single  redeeming  quality.  Looked  at 
from  all  sides,  it  presents  the  one  aspect  of  deformity. 
Some  of  its  friends  have  entered  the  extenuating  plea,  that 
it  has  improved  the  breed  of  horses.  Supposing  this  to  be 
the  case,  still  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  turf  has 
wrought  a  marked  deterioration  in  the  breed  of  men. 


386  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

Humanity  has  been  injured  more  than  horse-flesh  has  been 
benefited.  The  effect  on  the  stable  has  been  slight,  so 
slight  that  England  has  ceased  to  look  for  army  horses  in 
the  domain  of  the  jockey;  and  the  influence  on  the  home 
has  been  thoroughly  demoralizing.  The  gain  in  horse- 
flesh is  imperceptible,  but  the  loss  in  manhood  is  incalcu- 
lable. This  is  what  ought  to  be  considered;  for  even  were 
it  true  that  the  race-course  could  convert  every  spavined, 
glandered,  broken-winded  Eozinaiite  in  the  land  into  a 
full-winged  fiery  Pegasus,  the  corruption  and  debasement 
of  a  single  soul  would  be  too  dear  a  price  to  pay  for  the 
startling  transformation.  We  believe  as  much  as  any  one 
in  fast  horses;  we  love  to  drive  them,  and  we  do  not  think 
it  a  mortal  sin  to  speed  them.  There  is  no  particular 
virtue  in  going  slow,  and  no  culpability  in  going  rapidly. 
Were  a  regular  race  but  a  mere  exhibition  of  staying  and 
moving  qualities,  and  were  it  separated  from  betting  and 
kindred  evils,  we  would  have  no  objection  to  offer.  But 
we  know  it  is  not  this.  The  horses  are  simply  the  con- 
veniences adopted  by  men  of  loose  morals  for  the  perpetra- 
tion of  huge  frauds  on  the  confiding.  Their  improvement 
is  not  the  foremost  thought  of  the  professional  "  sport," 
but  rather,  with  their  help,  the  ruin  of  extravagant  profli- 
gates. The  trainer  does  not  care  for  the  horse,  the  jockey 
does  not,  the  owner  does  not,  neither  does  the  public;  but 
all  are  interested  in  the  money  they  may  earn,  or  win 
through  its  prowess.  That's  all  there  is  to  it.  In  fact, 
there  is  really  very  little  that  looks  like  amusement  in  a 
horse-race.  It  does  not  rest,  recuperate  and  refresh;  but 
rather,  excites  and  exhausts.  To  all  intents  and  purposes 
it  is  a  business,  and  a  business,  like  the  liquor  traffic,  fatal 
in  its  entire  bearing  on  all  who  have  anything  to  do  with 
it,  and  like  that  traffic  it  ought  to  be  voted  out  of  the 
country  as  a  nuisance  and  a  curse.  This  is  the  only 
reform  to  which  it  is  susceptible,  and  the  quicker  it  is 


THE    DANCE.  38? 

effected  the  better  for  all  parties  concerned,  including  the 
horse. 

Modern  dancing,  while  open  to  several  serious  objec- 
tions, is  far  from  deserving  to  rank  with  the  unmitigated 
evil  we  have  just  condemned.  Naturally  enough  it  has 
many  admirers,  especially  among  the  young.  We  repeat 
"naturally;"  for  the  "poetry  of  motion  "  is  as  fascinating 
to  the  eye  as  the  poetry  of  sound  is  to  the  ear.  Shake- 
speare's Florizel  says  to  Perdita,  "When  you  do  dance  I 
wish  you  a  wave  of  the  sea,*'  and  there  is  something  sug- 
gestive of  the  undulatory  movement  of  the  billows  in 
quadrille  and  waltz.  As  there  is  a  certain  rhythm  in  the 
beat  and  splash  of  the  ocean,  so  also  is  there  a  beauty  of 
emphasis  and  cadence  in  the  measured  step  and  swaying 
form  of  those  whose  graceful  actions  seem  to  flow  from  the 
music  which  accompanies  them.  The  ancients  looked 
with  a  more  favorable  eye  on  this  type  of  pleasure,  as  it  was 
indulged  in  among  them,  than  many  of  the  graver  sort  of 
people  do  in  our  day.  They  regarded  it  as  enjoying  the 
protection  and  patronage  of  one  of  the  muses.  ]f  Erato 
smiled  on  lyric  poetry,  Calliope  on  heroic  verse  and  Euterpe 
on  music,  Terpsichore  distinguished  dancing  with  her 
special  approval  and  support.  Being  thus  honored  by  the 
daughter  of  Mnemosyne  and  Jupiter,  it  was  not  surprising 
that  it  should  have  been  introduced  into  some  forms  of  wor- 
ship, as  in  that  of  Bacchus  and  Cybele,  or  that  it  should 
have  found  recognition  in  the  mystic  philosophy  of  Py- 
thagoras. But  not  only  among  the  Greeks  do  we  find  it  at 
times  dedicated  to  sacred  uses ;  among  the  Latins  also, 
particularly  under  the  direction  of  the  Salii,  was  it  repeat- 
edly devoted  to  the  glory  of  the  gods.  Even  the  Hebrews 
were  not  strangers  to  its  joyous  steps  in  seasons  of  devout 
gratitude  and  of  solemn  thanksgiving.  David  called  upon 
the  people  to  praise  God's  name  in  the  dance,  and  himself 
danced  before  the  Lord  when  the  Ark  was  restored.  True, 


388  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

as  we  may  be  reminded,  Saul's  daughter,  Michal,  reproved 
David  for  his  conduct ;  but,  as  anyone  may  see  for  himself 
who  reads  the  narrative,  her  criticism  was  not  sustained  by 
Jehovah.  Some  of  the  Christian  fathers  were  blind  to 
anything  like  inherent  immorality  in  the  dance,  and  hence 
they  represented  the  angels,  and  "the  glorious  company  of 
the  apostles"  as  engaging  in  it;  and  Scaliger  gravely  in- 
forms the  world  that  some  of  the  early  bishops  themselves 
led  in  its  mazes  on  feast  days.  A  change,  however,  seems 
to~  have  come  over  the  views  of  many  religious  people 
with  the  rise  of  the  modern  ballet;  and  as  it  progressed, 
and  as  it  infected  this  amusement  with  artificiality  and 
with  voluptuous  grace,  they  began  to  question  whether, 
after  all,  it  was  not  a  deadly  curse,  a  devilish  spirit  dis- 
guised "as  an  angel  of  light"  to  lure  multitudes  to  ruin. 
This  suspicion  became  a  settled  conviction  in  some  quar- 
ters, and  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  it 
was  deemed  highly  improper  and  inconsistent  for  a  dis- 
senting Christian  to  take  part  even  in  a  minuet,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  more  soul-destroying  waltz.  Members  were 
excluded  from  the  church  if  they  went  to  a  ball ;  and  as  to 
a  dancing  master,  alas!  poor  wretch,  he  had  no  social  recog- 
nition here,  and  no  hope  of  immortal  felicity  hereafter. 
Such  was  the  prevailing  feeling  in  evangelical  circles  with 
the  dawning  of  the  present  century,  and  a  few  individuals 
still  adhere  to  the  old-time  puritanical  notions  on  this  sub- 
ject. But  not  only  the  age,  the  church  as  well,  for  good 
or  for  bad,  has  largely  outgrown  them.  The  dance  has 
not  been  restored  to  the  position  it  occupied  in  Greece,  and 
never  will ;  nor  has  it  revived  sufficiently  in  public  favor 
to  warrant  a  Christian  bishop  leading  off  in  a  lively  and 
worldly  polka,  and  never  can  ;  but  it  is  looked  on  with  more 
leniency  and  toleration,  and  its  indulgence  under  judicious 
restraints  is  no  longer  prohibited  on  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion, except,  perhaps,  in  some  solitary  cases  where  discrim- 


FASHION'S  IMMODESTY.  389 

ination  and  common  sense  are  overborne  by  bigotry  and 
fatuity.  Many  pious  persons  who  are  not  "bigoted,"  and 
who  do  not  believe  in  ecclesiastical  censures,  do  not 
encourage  dancing,  fearing  its  influence  on  spiritual  life  to 
be  deleterious ;  and  yet  they  have  so  far  departed  from  the 
rigid  ideas  of  their  ascetic  sires  as  to  admit  explicitly  that  it  • 
is  not  wicked  in  itself. 

We  shall  not  undertake  the  uncalled-for  task  of  defend- 
ing the  present  attitude  of  religious  thought  on  this  sub- 
ject. It  is  hardly  necessary.  There  can  be  no  moral 
obliquity  in  any  particular  form  of  motion,  whether  a  walk, 
gallop,  hop,  reel  or  jig.  We  may  assuredly  "go-as-we- 
please"  without  incurring  guilt,  unless,  indeed,  we  go  in 
such  a  way  as  to  excite  lascivious  longings  in  ourselves  or 
others.  This,  it  is  claimed,  is  the  case  with  some  kinds  of 
dances.  If  it  is,  then  they  ought  to  be  discarded  without 
ostracizing  others  which  do  not. 

We  can  readily  understand  how  on  the  ground  assigned, 
the  ballet  posturers  and  acrobats  ought  to  be  rebuked,  and 
as  far  as  practicable  suppressed.  The  indelicacy  and  even 
scandalous  indecency  of  some  of  their  exhibitions  ought 
to  awaken  such  marked  disapproval  as  to  render  their  repe- 
tition impossible;  but  while  we  are  clear  as  to  their  character 
we  have  never  been  able  to  see,  except  in  extraordinary 
cases,  the  same  evidences  of  depravity  in  the  social  dances 
of  which  we  have  spoken.  We  must  admit  that  we  have 
b.een  much  more  shocked  at  the  low  cut,  very  low  cut, 
dresses  of  our  ladies,  and  among  them,  too,  the  purest  and 
the  best,  than  we  have  ever  been  at  anything  we  have  ever 
witnessed  in  the  way  of  poetic  motions  in  parlor  or  ball- 
room. What  is  exceedingly  suggestive,  these  displays  are, 
as  a  rule,  only  made  by  those  whose  charms  are  conspicu- 
ous. Rarely  will  a  narrow-chested,  scraggy,  yellow-necked 
female  bare  herself  to  the  mocking  eyes  of  those  around 
her.  Then  this  fashion  is  for  somebody's  eyes!  Whose? 


390  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

Let  us  hope  that  our  ladies  do  not  pause  to  ask  when  they 
are  seeing  how  much  of  naked  beauty  they  can  expose 
without  being  positively  indecorous,,  unless  we  conclude 
that  the  fashion  is  altogether  indecorous  and  immodest. 
Yet,  perhaps  it  might  be  better  if  they  did  ask 'when  pre- 
paring to  clothe  themselves  so  sparingly.  Charity  leads  us 
to  suppose  that  they  are  not  conscious  of  any  indelicacy  in 
their  scanty  costume;  and  that  same  charity  ought  to 
judge  leniently  those  dances  which  have  far  less  actual 
impropriety  about  them  than  there  is  in  this  hint  of 
Edenic  nudeness.  We  are  not  specially  pleading  for  their 
continuance.  If  they  are  debilitating,  emasculating  and 
corrupting  in  their  tendency,  let  them  be  reformed  or  be 
banished  from  polite  circles;  but  what  we  contend  for  is, 
that  these  instances  ought  not  to  prejudice  us  against  all 
dancing  in  whatever  circumstances  it  may  be  enjoyed. 
As  an  amusement,  if  pursued  with  moderation,  it  is 
invigorating  and  restful,  and  banishes  care  more  speedily 
than  almost  any  other  diversion.  It  is  peculiarly  be- 
coming in  children  and  in  youth,  and  it  is  particularly 
attractive  when  it  is  engaged  in  without  formality.  What 
is  more  harmless  and  more  indicative  of  happiness  than  a 
group  of  young  people,  beneath  the  parental  roof,  on  the 
spur  of  the  moment  clearing  the  room,  and  then  dashing 
forward  with  many  a  laugh  in  the  mazes  and  intricacies  of 
reel  or  cotillion?  Were  there  more  of  such  scenes  there 
would  doubtless  be  less  morbidness  and  melancholy  than 
there  are  now,  and  our  boys  and  girls  would  not  so  soon  be 
prematurely  old. 

Let  us  see  what  the  associations  and  accessories  are  which 
render  this  amusement  injurious  and  perilous.  Perhaps  we 
can  classify  them  with  sufficient  accuracy  under  the  heads, 
"Place,"  "Time,"  "Degree."  Regarding  "place," there 
is  none  more  desirable  in  every  way  than  the  family;  and 
none  more  objectionable  than  those  cheap  music-halls  where 


WHERE   TO    DANCE.  391 

late  hours  and  promiscuous  company  often  lead  to  vices  of 
the  worst  type.  They  are  vestibules  to  intemperance  and 
to  other  immoralities.  The  atmosphere  poisoned  with 
the  malodorous  breath  of  a  panting  multitude,  the  glare  of 
lights,  the  exciting  strains  of  music,  the  undue  familiarity 
between  the  sexes,  promoted  by  the  absence  of  restraints, 
and  the  very  exhilaration  caused  by  whirling  and  rapid 
motions,  tend  to  madden,  and  break  down  the  reserve  of 
virtue.  Such  resorts  as  these  are  the  corrupters  of  youth, 
and  they  should  share  the  fate  of  the  saloon.  A  com- 
munity with  positive  moral  convictions  would  not  tolerate 
their  existence  ;  and  the  fact  that  they  are  found  in  almost 
every  town  and  city  is  only  another  proof  of  the  laxity 
which  prevails.  Nor  can  much  more  be  said  in  favor  of 
fashionable  balls.  Their  surroundings  may  be  more  bril- 
liant, the  guests  more  elegant,  the  music  more  classical, 
the  refreshments  more  delicate ;  but  after  all  there  is 
"  much  of  a  muchness  "  in  their  influence  on  the  heart ; 
and  their  worth  is  not  greatly  in  advance  of  the  flashy 
halls,  with  their  discordant  fiddlers,  stale  beer,  and  Brum- 
magen  gentility.  In  the  former  as  well  as  the  latter  there 
is  the  subtle  appeal  to  passions  that  had  better  never  be 
roused,  and  the  display  of  rivalries,  jealousies  and  ambi- 
tions that  had  better  never  be  fostered.  Moreover,  the 
ball  is  rarely,  if  ever,  for  amusement.  It  is  a  ceremonious 
occasion,  a  formal  affair  for  intrigues,  for  the  marketing 
of  daughters,  for  the  vulgar  parade  of  affluence,  and  for 
almost  everything  else,  except  diversion.  There  is  hardly 
anything  in  it  of  a  restful  and  refreshing  character,  and 
there  is  much  that  .is  wearisome  and  disgusting.  Such 
places  should  be  avoided.  Dancing  in  either  case  can  only 
be  fatiguing  and  injurious,  and  can  never  compensate  for 
the  risk  assumed.  Let  us  never  forget  that  it  is  simply  a 
privilege,  not  a  duty.  We  are  under  no  everlasting  obliga- 
tion to  hop,  jump,  skip  and  whirl  to  sound  of  music,  but 


392  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

we  are  to  preserve  our  characters  spotless  ;  and  if  the 
interest  of  the  latter  demand  in  some  circumstances  absti- 
nence from  the  former,  we  have  no  right  to  hesitate  as  to 
our  choice. 

Late  hours  also  vitiate  this  amusement.  People  leave 
their  homes  at  11  o'clock  at 'night  for  a  ball-room,  and  re- 
turn early  the  next  morning,  and  yet  call  such  excesses 
pleasure.  Weary,  languid,  and  cross  they  resume  their 
daily  avocations,  and  then  wonder  that  they  are  not  success- 
ful in  business.  We  understand  how  exerciee  in  the  early 
evening  can  really  recuperate,  and  contributing  to  quiet 
slumber,  serve  the  true  end  of  diversion.  But  this  going 
out  when  one  ought  to  be  going  to  bed,  this  forcing  one's 
e?  es  open  when  they  ought  to  be  shut,  and  this  arraying 
one's  self  in  '-purple  and  fine  linen  "when  one  ought  to 
be  asleep,  is  the  height  of  unnaturalness,  and  in  any  other 
creature  than  man  would  be  regarded  as  absurdity  border- 
ing on  insanity.  But  in  addition  to  the  "  time,"  the  "de- 
gree "  of  one's  devotion  to  the  dance  has  much  to  do  with 
its  harmlessness  or  harmfulness.  With  some  persons  it  is 
the  supreme  end  of  existence.  They  think  of  but  little 
else.  The  mysteries  of  jete,  chasse,  coupe,  boitrrec,  yail- 
larde,  contre-tonps,  pirouette,  and  the  rest,  absorb  them 
quite,  and  all  other  mundane  concerns  are  neglected. 
Even  their  dreams  are  full  of  hornpipes,  reels,  sarabands, 
rigadoons.  and  what  not,  and  their  waking  hours  are 
crowded  with  visions  of  dazzling  throngs  trippingly  moving 
on  "  the  light  fantastic  toe."  Young  ladies  of  this  turn  of 
mind  waste  entire  days  planning  for  coming  "  events  of 
the  season,"  and  more  in  talking  over  their  memories,  and 
then  in  repeating  the  doleful  process.  Some  not  over-well 
balanced  youths  vie  with  them  in  this  nerveless  mode  of 
living  ;  and  thus  we  come  to  be  afflicted  with  a  "  species," 
which  is  a  decided  '•  variation"  from  what  we  have  been 
taught  to  regard  as  "the  manly "  or  "  womanly."  To 


THE   THEATRE.  393 

such  people  the  universe  is  a  ball-room,  the  moral  law  a 
code  of  harmonious  gyrations,  the  Supreme  Himself  a 
gigantic  kind  of  dancing-master,  and  the  end  a  chilly 
morning  dawning  over  sleepy  revelers,  a  broken  fiddle,  and 
a  somnolent  eternity.  Sad,  unspeakably  sad,  this  possi- 
bility of  a  healthful  enjoyment  becoming  an  unwholesome 
infatuation,  and  of  a  human  life  being  frittered  away  on 
the  infinitely  frivolous  and  unimportant. 

The  Theatre,  as  an  institution  of  Society,  furnishing 
a  varied  and  entrancing  kind  of  entertainment,  is  open 
to  serious  criticism.  We  are  not  of  those  who  hate  the 
Stage,  or  who  ask  with  bitter  sneer:  "Can  any  good 
thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ?"  and  yet  we  are  compelled 
to  confess,  that  the  poet  was  not  without  justification 
when  he  penned  the  scathing  words : 

The  theatre  was  from  the  very  first, 

The  favorite  haunt  of  Sin,  though  honest  men — 

Some  very  honest,  wise,  and  worthy  men — 

Maintained  it  might  be  turned  to  good  account ; 

And  so  perhaps  it  might,  but  never  was. 

From  first  to  last,  it  was  an  evil  place, 

And  now  such  things  are  acted  there  as  make 

The  devils  blush,  and  from  the  neighborhood 

Angels  and  holy  men  tremblingly  retire  ? 

In  replying  to  such  assaults  as  this,  it  is  usual  for  the 
friends  of  the  theatre  to  assert  that  it  is  so  far  from  being 
a  source  of  unmixed  evil,  that  it  is  in  a  very  valid  sense 
"a  school  of  virtue."  This  position  we  have  always  re- 
garded as  untenable  and  though  we  are  inclined  to  take 
the  most  charitable  view,  we  cannot  permit  such  an 
assumption  to  go  unchallenged.  The  theatre  may  be 
many  other  things,  a  school  of  oratory,  of  art,  of  grace,  of 
almost  anything  else  under  heaven,  but  not  of  virtue.  In 
proof  of  what  we  affirm,  there  is  no  manager  who  would 
be  willing  to  announce  that  his  plays  were  all  in  the  inter- 
est of  morality,  and  that  he  hoped  his  audience  would 


394  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

come  and  be  made  better.  To  the  contrary,  most  of 
them  by  insinuations,  suggestive  titles,  and  posters  border- 
ing on  nastiness,  intimate  to  the  public  that  they  mean 
to  steer  as  far  away  from  purity  as  the  law  will  allow. 
They  know  that  their  patrons  do  not  seek  instruction,  but 
amusement  ;  not  ethical  culture  but  diversion ;  that  they 
are  not  looking  for  school  or  prayer-meeting,  but  the  very 
opposite ;  and  that  nothing  would  keep  them  away  more 
effectually  than  the  impression  that  they  would  be  com- 
pelled to  endure  the  discipline  of  the  one  or  the  exhorta- 
tions of  the  other.  Moreover,  is  it  not  true,  that,  up  to 
the  present,  all  endeavors  to  reform  the  Stage  have  prac- 
tically failed  ?  We  do  not  say  that  future  efforts  must 
inevitably  come  to  nothing ;  or  that  Mr.  Henry  Irving, 
and  perhaps  Mr.  Lawrence  Barrett,  may  not  succeed  in 
doing  something  in  this  direction.  In  other  words  we  are 
not  hopeless.  But  the  fact  that  attempts  thus  far  have 
not  been  sustained,  and  that  improvements  have  rapidly 
given  way  almost  as  soon  as  accomplished,  is  a  sad  com- 
ment on  the  "  school-of -virtue  "  theory.  Strange  it  is  that 
writers,  such  as  Otto  Peltzer,  in  Music  and  Drama,  or  the 
authors  of  the  "Symposium"  in  the  North  American  Re- 
view, (December,  1883,)  should  have  always  in  view  the 
drama  as  it  might  be,  and  as  it  ought  to  be,  but  not  as  it 
is.  They  and  others  deplore  its  present  condition,  com- 
plain in  their  own  elegant  phraseology  of  the  "rot"  which 
has  overtaken  it,  and  of  the  decay  of  what  old  professionals 
designate  as  the  "legitimate."  Does  it  not  seem  singular 
that  a  school  of  virtue  should  constantly  provoke  such 
lamentations  ;  and  that  it  should  draw  saloons  and  bagnios 
into  its  immediate  neighborhood,  and  often  tolerate  a  pub- 
lic bar  within  its  walls  ;  and  should  ever  be  the  one  favor- 
ite resort  of  pimps,  blacklegs,  topers,  sneak-thieves  and 
loafers  ?  Are  they  seeking  virtue  ?  Is  it  their  relish  for 
goodness  that  draws  them  in  crowds  to  pit  and  gallery  ? 


SHAMS   OF   THE   STAGE.  395 

Possibly ;  but  we  would  never  suspect  it.  A  recent  author 
has  praised  Racine  and  Corueille,  has  represented  Moliere 
at  the  moral  guide  of  France,  and  has  extolled  the  lofty 
sentiments  of  Shakespeare,  Goethe,  and  Schiller ;  and  in 
addition  he  has  attempted  to  show  the  reforming  power  of 
such  plays  as  theirs  on  the  public.  All  this  is  very  well. 
We  do  not  doubt  that  some  stage  performances  have  ridi- 
culed or  even  denounced  social  follies  and  vices,  and  that 
they  are  frequently  adorned  with  ennobling  thoughts;  but 
the  instances  are  indeed  few  and  imnoteworthy  where  they 
have  exerted  any  wide-spread  wholesome  influence  on  the 
moral  life  of  community.  Somehow,  in  a  theatre,  we  think 
of  everything  going  on  as  artificial.  The  scenery  is  but  a 
poor  copy  of  nature,  and  actors  are  not  what  they  seem; 
and  so  we  come  to  think  of  what  is  said  as  partaking  of 
the  unreal  and  fictitious.  It  is  all  a  sham,  virtue  as  well  as 
everything  else.  This  simulation,  this  confessed  pretense 
and  personation  neutralize  the  effect  of  passages  charged 
with  divinest  truths.  They  too  belong  to  the  phantasma- 
goria which,  for  the  time  being,  entrance  the  audience  and 
are  as  illusive  as  the  sheet-iron  thunder,  the  resin  light- 
ning, and  the  canvas  bowers  and  glades  of  fairy-land.  If 
there  is  anything  calculated  to  undermine  all  confidence 
in  the  actual  distinction  between  right  and  wrong  it  is  ex- 
cessive attendance  on  the  drama.  Acting!  acting!  nothing 
but  acting!  everything  in  this  very  real  and  solemn  world 
becomes  to  him  who  is  a  devotee  at  the  shrine  of  Thespian 
art.  He  is  in  danger  of  being  stricken  with  the  paralysis 
of  skepticism,  and  of  sneering  at  everything  claiming  to  be 
moral  or  religious. 

But  supposing  we  are  at  fault  in  our  philosophy,  and 
that  some  plays  are  really  fitted  to  quicken  the  ethical  life 
of  Society;  yet  how  very  few  of  them  seem  to  be  presented. 
The  number  is  so  small  and  is  so  greatly  overborne  by 
others  of  a  pernicious  character  as  to  render  their 


390  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

influence  trifling  and  imperceptible.  Anyone  who  will 
take  pains  to  watch  the  announcements  in  the  newspapers, 
and  the  notices  of  the  entertainments  penned  by  the  critics, 
must  agree  with  us  that  the  majority  of  theatrical  per- 
formances tend  toward  immorality;  and  if  so  large  a  part 
of  what  is  furnished  as  amusement  is  corrupting,  and  if 
even  when  the  tone  is  better  there  are  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  its  proving  effective,  we  must  conclude  that  there 
is  no  other  ground  for  the  theory  we  are  examining,  than 
the  luxuriant  imagination  of  its  special  advocates.  More 
than  this,  we  seriously  question  whether  the  Stage,  how- 
ever reformed  and  purified,  would  ever  really  deserve  to 
be  regarded  as  a  school  of  virtue.  It  might  be  made 
harmless,  a  pleasure  without  pain  and  a  joy  without 
sorrow.  There  is  nothing  necessarily  wrong  in  dramatic 
exhibitions,  and  it  is  a  shame  that  capable  as  they  are  of 
yielding  delight  they  should  be  contaminated  by  anything 
vicious  and  debasing.  But  if  they  were  so  far  renovated 
as  to  contain  nothing  fairly  objectionable,  so  that  the 
weakest  soul  could  attend  on  them  with  impunity,  they 
would  yet  fail  on  account  of  their  essential  nature — being 
only  a  "counterfeit  presentment,"  an  artistic  chimera,  a 
futile  phantom  —  to  accomplish  what  this  pretentious 
assumption  implies.  The  mission  of  the  theatre  is  to 
amuse,  and  we  shall  riot  complain,  nay  we  will  praise  it, 
if  it  discharges  this  function  without  making  the  people 
worse  than  they  are.  We  do  not  ask  it  to  make  them 
positively  better.  If  it  could  do  so,  of  course,  we  would 
not  object.  But  it  cannot.  Self-improvement,  the  cor- 
rection of  bad  habits,  the  inspiration  to  personal  goodness, 
are  not  sought  within  its  walls.  The  public  patronize  it 
simply  to  be  amused,  and  its  business  is  to  amuse. 
Amusement  is  the  bond  between  them,  and  if  the  theatre 
will  only  honor  it  and  do  it  without  injury  to  the  moral 
life  of  the  community,  the  public  can  well  excuse  it  for 


THE  SOCK   AND   BUSKIN.  397 

not  being  what  it  was  never  designed  to  be,  an  instructor 
in  righteousness  and  a  fountain  of  godliness. 

Thus  far  we  have  simply  considered  this  institution  in 
its  relation  with  the  audience ;  but  to  form  an  adequate 
conception  of  its  character  we  must  view  it  in  connection 
with  its  servants.  What  a  world  of  romance  and  glory  do 
the  wearers  of  "  Sock  and  Buskin  "  suggest  to  tile  com- 
mon-place plodder  on  the  streets,  and  to  the  dull,  dumb 
multitudes  who  never  are  allowed  to  penetrate  behind  the 
scenes!  With  what  admiration  beaming  from  their  eyes 
do  they  behold  the  tinsel  finery  of  puppet  kings  and 
queens,  and  with  what  envy  do  they  see  them  sit  on  painted 
thrones  and  devour  their  Barmacide  banquets.  Judging 
by  what  they  have  witnessed  on  the  stage — the  lordly  strut, 
the  disdainful  look,  the  elegant  carriage,  with  all  that 
accompanies  them — they  have  pictured  the  player  as  vastly 
superior  to  ordinary  men,  as  something  remarkable  and 
something  eminently  worthy  the  homage  of  their  curios- 
ity. If  he  or  she  enters  a  store  the  clerks  scrutinize  either 
with  "awful"  interest;  and  the  possibility  of  acquaint- 
anceship with  such  a  one  is  more  than  "  the  wildest  ambi- 
tion" of  some  small  tradesmen  ever  dreamed  as  possible. 
It  is  an  event,  an  event  to  be  spoken  of,  not  generally,  of 
course,  but  prudently  and  with  appropriate  winks,  winks 
that  denote  more  than  can  be  expressed  regarding  the 
closeness  of  the  friendship  formed  ;  and  with  self-congrat- 
ulatory melancholy  smiles  of  commisseratiou  for  the  un- 
privileged creatures  who  are  precluded  from  this  felicitous 
honor.  In  a  word,  to  scores  of  outsiders  performers  are 
human  wonders,  without  particular  cares  or  burdens,  liv- 
ing in  an  ideal  and  blissful  realm,  and  acting  their  several 
parts  without  study  or  fatigue.  But — and  we  really  are 
ashamed  to  write  what  will  give  others  pain — all  this  is  a 
misconception,  a  pleasant  illusion  and  a  little  bit  of  inane 
hero-worship.  Actors  are  not  the  fortunate  beings  which 


398  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

the  imagination  of  the  uninitiated  portrays.  Just  the  con- 
trary. As  a  rule  their  life  is  a  toilsome  one,  poorly  recom- 
pensed, full  of  privations,  trials  and  disappointments. 
Not  many  among  them  ever  succeed,  and  when  they  do 
not  their  income  is  frequently  precarious,  and  their  per- 
sonal comforts  few  and  far  between.  They  have  no  per- 
manent abiding  place,  especially  since  the  adoption  of  the 
abominable  itinerant  system  ;  and  hence  they  are  unable  to 
form  home-like  habits  or  taste  the  joys  of  the  domestic 
hearth.  At  times  their  clothes  are  seedy,  of  poor  material 
and  unpaid  for.  They  are  betrayed  by  managers,  assailed 
by  boarding-house  keepers,  cut  up  by  the  press  and  ex- 
hausted beyond  all  patience  by  long  and  monotonous  re- 
hearsals. Often  with  heavy  heart  and  unfilled  stomach 
the  actor  or  actress  has  to  make  his  bow,  play  his  part  and 
seek  applause  from  those  whom  he  does  not  esteem  very 
highly.  She  also  has  to  dance,  to  sing,  to  smile,  while  her 
thoughts  maybe  are  with  a  poverty-stricken  mother,  or 
with  a  helpless  family  of  fatherless  ones.  Her  time  is  not 
her  own.  Possibly  she  is  only  engaged  for  utilitarian  busi- 
ness, or  for  what  is  called  among  professionals  "  the  walk- 
ing ladies"  role,  or,  for  what  is  still  less  dignified,  the  bal- 
let, and  she  must  go  through  her  performance  whatever 
her  private  griefs,  not  being  of  sufficient  importance  to  ob- 
tain temporary  release  for  tbe  decencies  of  private  sorrows. 
Significantly,  though  sadly,  writes  a  rhymer: 

Only  a  ballet-girl  lightly  she  trips 

Over  the  stage  in  her  tinsel  and  lace, 
She  forces  a  wearisome  smile  to  her  lips  ; 

What  cares  may  lie  hid  'neath  the  paint  on  her  face ! 
She  thinks,  as  she  dances,  of  dear  ones  at  home, 

Of  needs  which  must  wait,  and  of  bills  she  must  pay; 
And  sometimes  her  fancy  will  hopefully  roam, 

As  she  thinks  of  the  coming  of  treasury-day. 

Nor  is  this  wearisome    bondage   only  experienced  by 


MAGGIE  MITCHELL.  399 

those  who  fill  subordinate  positions  on  the  stage.  The 
leaders,  the  "  bright  and  particular  stars"  of  the  profession, 
give  anything  but  an  attractive  account  of  their  calling. 
A  little  talk  with  them  speedily  dispels  all  illusions  re- 
garding their  exemption  from  ills  which  most  of  us  have 
to  endure,  and  show  that  they  are  as  taxed,  fretted,  wor- 
ried and  burdened  as  the  rest  of  us.  Thus,  for  instance, 
Maggie  Mitchell,  in  the  "  Symposium  "  already  referred 
to  gives  the  public  an  idea  of  her  overworked  life.  We 
quote  a  few  sentences: 

My  own  days,  spent  most  of  them  far  from  my  children  and  the 
comforts  and  delights  of  my  home,  are  full  of  exhausting  labor. 
Rehearsals  and  other  business  occupy  me  from  early  morning  till 
the  hour  of  performance,  with  brief  intervals  for  rest  and  food  and  a 
little  sleep.  In  the  best  hotels  my  time  is  so  invaded  that  I  can 
scarcely  live  comfortably,  much  less  luxuriously.  At  the  worst,  ex- 
istence becomes  a  torment  and  a  burden.  I  am  the  eager,  yet  weary, 
slave  of  my  profession,  and  the  best  it  can  do  for  me — who  am  fortu- 
nate enough  to  be  included  among  its  successful  members — is  to 
barely  palliate  the  sufferings  of  a  forty  weeks'  exile  from  my  own 
house  and  family. 

How  different  such  a  career  as  this  from  the  one  ex- 
cited fancy  attributes  to  the  histrionic  artist.  "  Harle- 
quin," says  Thackeray,  "  may  carry  a  heavy  heart  beneath 
his  spangled  shining  suit ";  and  we  have  no  doubt  but 
that  multitudes  who  tread  the  boards  are  distressed, 
desponding  and  almost  despairing.  Perhaps  this  is  no 
more  true  of  them  than  of  people  in  other  callings;  but 
what  adds  to  its  pathos  and  impressiveness  in  their  case 
is,  that, they  have  to  entertain  others  while  they  are  them- 
selvess  suffering.  N"o  wonder  the  Greeks  imparted  to  the 
mask  of  Thalia  an  expression  of  sad,  scornful  irony;  for 
to  our  way  of  thinking  there  is  nothing  so  pitiable  and 
incongruous,  or  so  full  of  mockery,  as  a  discouraged,  dis- 
spirited  and  almost  heart-broken  man  or  woman  arrayed 
in  festive  garments  and  playing  a  comic  part  for  the 


400  STUDIES  IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

amusement  of  gaping  throngs.  No  wonder  that  some 
among  them  become  reckless,  take  to  drinking  and  end 
their  earthly  course  as  impecunious  bloated  idlers  or  as 
maudlin  imbeciles. 

A  certain  Miss  Willee,  of  the  Gaiety  Theatre,  London, 
is  reported  as  saying  that  all  her  sisters  of  the  drama  are 
not  "tarred  with  the  same  brush. "  Sincerely  we  believe 
it;  and  from  what  we  have  known  of  them  we  are  confident 
that  not  a  few  of  them  resist  temptations  to  evil  courses. 
Yet  we  cannot  ignore  the  fact  that  unfriendly  critics  of  the 
stage  usually  speak  in  coarse,  unguarded  terms  of  those  ladies 
who  have  adopted  it  as  a  profession.  This  is  a  gratuitous 
insult.  No  one  has  a  right  to  take  up  an  accusation 
against  any  class  of  people,  and  without  proper  qualifica- 
tion repeat  it  to  the  discredit  of  all,  when  only  some — and 
even  though  many — are  really  guilty.  A  slander  is  as 
much  a  slander  when  retailed  about  actors  as  about  anyone 
else;  and  the  good  name  of  an  actress  is  as  precious  to  her 
as  to  any  other  woman. 

Especially  have  theatrical  performers  a  right  to  con- 
siderate treatment — for  those  among  them  who  preserve 
their  integrity  do  so  in  the  face  of  teriffic  odds.  Their 
calling  is  not  favorable  to  the  cultivation  of  blameless 
conduct;  and,  therefore,  when  they  successfully  resist 
the  tendencies  that  would  drag  them  down,  the  more 
deserving  are  they  of  commendation.  Almost  every- 
thing connected  with  the  stage  is  inimical  to  the  forma- 
tion of  correct  principles  and  good  habits.  In  every  com- 
munity there  are  vapid,  luxurious,  and  licentious  indi- 
viduals who  look  on  all  actresses  as  their  natural  prey, 
who  dog  their  steps,  simper  and  wink  at  them  from  pro- 
scenium boxes,  wait  for  them  at  the  theatre's  entrance, 
follow  them  home,  besiege  them  with  perfumed  silly  notes, 
flowers  and  presents,  and  are  bold  and  impudent  in  their 
shameless  solicitations.  Not  a  few  of  their  intended  vie- 


PERILS  OF  THE  STAGE.  401 

tims  are  poor,  and  feeling  that  they  are  under  a  social  ban, 
are  inclined  to  avail  themselves  of  a  "  protection "  which 
carries  with  it  personal  degradation.  Then  some  managers 
connive,  let  us  hope  not  always  intentionally,  with  these 
lascivious  creatures  in  effecting  the  ruin  of  gay  and 
thoughtless  girls,  whose  reputation  they  ought  to  guard, 
not  imperil.  They  permit  fashionable  loungers  behind  the 
scenes,  afford  them  opportunity  of  conversation  with  these 
girls  in  the  greenroom,  and  in  other  ways  practically  pan- 
der to  vices  which  they  ought  to  deplore.  Moreover,  the 
public  is  not  altogether  clear  of  responsibility  in  this  mat- 
ter. Society  people  will  patronize  a  Bernhardt  and  a 
Langtry  as  well  and  as  freely  as  they  will  an  Anderson  or  a 
Modjeska,  and  from  this  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  in  the 
theatrical  profession  a  fair  name  is  not  necessary  to  success. 
In  every  other  calling  that  claims  to  be  legitimate  a  personal 
worth  is  indispensable  to  prosperity,  or  at  least  the  reputa- 
tion for  personal  worth  is  essential.  This  is  particularly 
true  in  regard  to  women.  Female  bookkeepers,  physicians, 
teachers,  and  lady-workers  in  other  departments  dare  not 
defy  social  sentiment  on  the  question  of  morality,  or  in- 
dulge in  flagrant  transgressions  of  the  laws  of  propriety. 
The  notable  exception  to  this  wholesome  state  of  things  is 
the  Stage.  There  a  frail  character  is  just  as  likely  to 
achieve  notable  triumphs,  if  distinguished  by  rare  ability, 
as  a  Charlotte  Cushman  or  a  Mrs.  Siddons ;  and  the  ten- 
dency of  this  indifference  to  virtue  on  the  part  of  the  audi- 
ence is  to  provoke  like  indifference  on  the  part  of  the 
players. 

Nor  should  it  be  overlooked  that  the  nomadic  life  which 
actors  lead,  having  no  permanent  abiding-place,  and  being 
continually  subject  to  excessive  excitement,  exposes  them 
to  special  temptations.  They  are  not  likely  to  feel  the  re- 
straints which  exist  where  one  is  identified  with  a  particu- 
lar community,  nor  are  they  apt  to  realize  the  necessity  for 
26 


402  STUDIES  IN"  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

freedom  from  stimulants  or  the  importance  of  keeping  clear 
of  debt.  Admirers  repeatedly  and  insistently  offer  them 
drink,  and  "wine  them  and  dine  them"  in  return  for  the 
pleasure  their  company  affords ;  and  they  themselves  are 
in  danger  of  seeking  its  assistance  to  counteract  the  effect 
of  their  nerve-debilitating  labors.  Likewise,  they  are  fre- 
quently reckless  in  money  matters,  so  that  while  they  are 
usually  generous  to  a  fault,  having  an  open  hand  to  the  cry 
of  distress,  they  are  often  slow  to  pay  what  they  honestly 
owe.  They  may  have  no  intention  to  defraud  anyone. 
We  do  not  accuse  them  of  that.  The  explanation  of  their 
careless  conduct  is  to  be  traced,  not  so  much  to  a  native 
lack  of  integrity,  as  to  their  Bohemian  existence,  which, 
with  its  many  irregularities,  fosters  loose  views  concerning 
financial  obligations.  Then,  in  addition  to  this,  the  pecu- 
liar nature  and  claims  of  their  profession  are  unfavorable 
to  the  cultivation  of  sound  principles.  It  requires  them  to 
impersonate  so  many  and  such  varied  characters  that  they 
are  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  they  have,  or  ought  to 
have,  one  of  their  own.  The  assumption  of  roles  so  oppo- 
site to  each  other,  and  the  artistic  endeavor  to  become  iden- 
tified with  each,  must  render  it  difficult  to  preserve  their 
own  identity.  A  man's  vocation  is  generally  acknowledged 
to  exert  a  molding  influence  on  his  thoughts  and  conduct. 
There  is,  in  other  words,  something  of  the  "shop"  about 
the  members  of  guilds,  crafts  and  pursuits.  Now,  if 
what  we  are  most  concerned  with  has  power  to  impart 
itself  to  mind  and  heart,  to  build  itself,  as  it  were, 
into  the  very  structure  of  character,  we  ought  not  to 
be  surprised  if  actors  should  incline  toward  the  arti- 
ficiality, the  instability  and  romanticism  of  their  call- 
ing. Everything  about  them  tends  to  pretense,  and  to 
belief  in  its  efficacy.  Scenery  with  the  backs  of  the 
"flats"'  unpainted  is  just  as  serviceable  as  something  more 
substantial  and  real;  fictitious  gems  and  splendors  of  every 


SAINTLY   STRUGGLES,  403 

kind,  and  the  hocus-pocus,  the  humbug  and  the  catch- 
penny arts  are  just  as  useful  in  swaying  and  thrilling  an 
audience  as  genuine  diamonds  and  laces,  of  as  veracious- 
ness  in  all  methods  and  appliances.  They  see  that  the 
world  "is  still  deceived  by  ornament/'  that  a  lie  faithfully 
simulating  truth,  and  a  sham  fashioned  to  resemble  sub- 
stance, will  apparently  go  as  far  with  it  and  win  its  applause 
as  the  reality.  They  live  in  a  domain  of  phantasmagoria, 
and  that,  occupying  by  far  the  greater  part  of  their  time 
and  thought,  is  likely  to  follow  them,  and  to  disfigure 
their  private  life.  One  illusion  following  another  in  swift 
succession,  and  crowding  on  every  side,  must  have  some 
degree  of  educational  power,  and  must  render  it  hard  to 
escape  the  impressions  that  morality  itself  is  also  largely  an 
illusion. 

To  resist  such  misleading  and  confusing  influences 
necessarily  must  require  extreme  sensitiveness  of  con- 
science, great  will-force,  and  much  buttressing  and  for- 
tressing  of  the  soul  with  clearly  defined  principles  of 
right-doing.  No  language  possibly  can  do  justice  to  the 
heroic  struggle  demanded  in  these  singularly  unfavoring 
circumstances  to  maintain  integrity  and  purity.  There- 
fore, we  confess  to  almost  unmeasured  respect  for  the 
actors  and  actresses  who  preserve  unstained  their  good 
name,  and  who  are  practically  saints  in  most  unsaintly 
surroundings. 

In  all  of  these  representations  we  have  aimed  to  be 
perfectly  candid  and  fair;  and  if  they  are  indeed  just, 
then  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  theatre  ought  to 
be  recast  and  remodeled.  This  conclusion  we  apprehend 
very  few  persons  whose  opinion  is  worth  anything  will 
seriously  challenge.  But  there  is  not  similar  unanimity 
as  to  the  means  fitted  to  accomplish  the  work  demanded. 
At  this  point  differences  appear.  Some  friends  of  re- 
form write  and  speak  in  such  a  way  as  to  create  the 


404  STUDIES  IN"  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

impression  that  the  Church  could  remedy  existing  evils 
if  she  would  only  take  them  in  hand.  With  the  most 
charming  confidence  it  has  been  asserted  that  her  mem- 
bers ought  to  assure  managers  of  their  willingness  to  sup- 
port the  legitimate  drama,  and  no  other;  and  that  were 
they  to  do  this  a  strong  impulse  Avould  be  given  to  its  re- 
vival. But  these  gentlemen  already  know  the  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  earnest  Christians  attending  the  theatre, 
and  any  number  of  resolutions  would  not  enlighten  them 
further;  and  they  also  have  reason  to  believe  were  inde- 
cencies removed  many  of  them  would  patronize  the  drama; 
because  not  a  few  of  them — whether  "earnest''  or  not 
we  do  not  pause  to  inquire — patronize  it  now  in  spite  of 
its  demoralizing  tendencies.  What  is  needed  more  than 
any  "assurances/'  is  that,  to  speak  professionally,  the 
managers  should  take  their  "cue"  from  the  views 
of  the  Church,  often  repeated,  and  act  accordingly. 
In  other  words  we  sincerely  believe  that  the  initiative 
must  be  taken  by  those  who  have  charge  of  the  Stage,  who 
know  its  abuses,  and  who  in  the  nature  of  things  are 
mainly  responsible  for  their  correction.  We  are  not  exon- 
erating Christians  from  blame,  or  excusing  them  from 
effort,  in  regard  either  to  the  disease  complained  of 
or  the  cure.  Only  we  are  convinced  that  what  they 
have  failed  to  do,  and  consequently  what  they  ought 
to  do,  is  to  educate  public  sentiment  against  the  obscene, 
and  the  trashy.  Theatrical  directors  are  caterers  not 
reformers;  they  feel  called  on  to  gratify  the  public  appe- 
tite, not  to  improve  it.  They  have  yielded  continually  to 
pressure;  and  one  of  the  most  irreproachable  and  most 
cultivated  of  those  who  reside  in  Chicago  even  succumbed 
to  what  he  regarded  as  a  popular  demand,  and  in  the 
teeth  of  all  the  Christian  sentiment  in  the  city  consented 
to  have  his  theatre  open  on  Sunday.  This  shows  that 
there  is  a  special  work  to  be  undertaken  by  the  Church. 


THEATRICAL   MANAGERS.  405 

In  Sunday  school,  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  family  she  must 
warn  against  the  pernicious  in  amusements.  With  candor 
she  must  discriminate  between  good  and  bad,  between 
excess  and  moderation,  between  art  and  the  degradation 
of  art.  Her  particular  mission  lies  more  with  the  audience 
than  with  the  stage,  more  with  the  depraved  multitudes 
who  clamor  for  demoralizing  sights  and  scenes  than  with 
the  weak  and  dependent  performers  whose  interests 
incline  them  to  comply;  and  her  invectives  should  be 
launched  primarily  at  Society  for  the  character  of  the 
entertainments  it  patronizes,  not  at  the  theatre  for 
furnishing  the  entertainments.  If  she  will  only  elevate 
the  moral  tone  of  the  former,  the  moral  tone  of  the  latter 
will  be  forced  to  change  for  the  better. 

To  managers  and  to  leading  performers  belong  the 
direct  task  of  reforming  the  profession.  They  must  take 
the  initiative.  Outsiders  cannot  interfere  successfully  in 
their  business.  May  we  not  with  propriety  ask  what  they 
have  ever  done  to  redeem  their  vocation  from  the  evils 
which  disgrace  it?  We  know  they  have  resented  censure, 
and  have  indulged  in  eulogies  of  what  the  drama  was  de- 
signed to  be,  and  of  what  it  might  be;  but  what  have  they 
actually  done  to  render  it  what  it  must  be  if  ever  it  is  to 
deserve  the  approval  of  the  wise  and  good?  Some  things 
they  might  have  done  which  they  have  failed  seriously  to 
undertake.  They  might  form  themselves  into  a  guild,  as 
the  bankers  have  done,  and  the  various  trades,  and  they 
might  agree  among  themselves  to  banish  demoralizing 
plays  from  the  "  boards,"  and  to  exclude  from  their  com- 
panies disreputable  females  and  dissipated  and  dishonor- 
able men.  They  might  also  forbid  the  sale  or  use  of 
intoxicants  on  their  premises,  and  refuse  to  admit  infa- 
mous women  to  the  auditorium,  and  equally  infamous 
specimens  of  the  opposite  sex  to  the  greenroom.  More- 
over, were  they  so  inclined,  they  might  prevail  on  the 


406  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

law-makers  to  permit  no  saloon  to  be  located  any  nearer  to 
a  theatre  than  to  a  school-house  ;  and  they  might  decline 
to  employ  any  person  in  any  capacity  whatever  who  habit- 
ually spends  the  midnight  hours  in  the  resorts  of  drunk- 
ards. They  might  honor  the  Sabbath  day,  thus  giving  to 
their  employes  not  only  a  season  for  recuperation,  but 
opportunity  as  well  to  emerge  from  the  dominating  con- 
trol of  the  artificial ;  and  they  might,  likewise,  break  up 
entirely,  or  materially  curtail,  the  present  itinerary  system 
which  has  done  so  much  to  deprive  actors  of  the  home  and 
the  restraining  and  elevating  influences  of  a  settled  habita- 
tion. All  this  they  might  do.  Nor  is  this  much  to 
require  at  their  hands  ;  nor  is  there  anything  in  it  unrea- 
sonable or  burdensome.  They  are  asked  to  do  nothing 
that  is  not  commonly  done  in  other  respectable  employ- 
ments ;  and  if  they  are  unwilling  to  attempt  this  much, 
what  confidence  can  be  reposed  in  their  expressed  desires 
for  reform,  or  what  hope  be  entertained  of  the  ultimate 
elevation  of  the  drama? 

While  we  have  in  these  remarks  defined  the  respective 
duties  of  the  Church  and  the  Stage,  we  would  not  have 
our  readers  overlook  those  of  the  State.  The  authorities 
have  the  same  right  to  forbid  corrupting  exhibitions  as 
they  have  to  prevent  obscene  matter  from  being  sent 
through  the  mails.  They  certainly  can  legislate  drinking 
places  away  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  theatre.  If  its 
vicious  surroundings  were  broken  up,  the  Stage  would 
lose  much  of  its  attractiveness  for  the  crowds  who  desire 
only  food  for  coarse  appetites  and  fuel  for  lust ;  and 
then  it  would  be  forced,  in  self-defence,  to  mend  its 
ways  that  a  different  class  of  patrons  might  be  drawn  to 
its  support. 

But  beyond  this  there  is  a  special  obligation  resting  on 
our  civic  guardians  which  they  have  very  generally  ignored, 
and  whichj  if  duly  honored,  would  do  much  toward  cor- 


CHILD-PERFORMERS.  407 

recting  a  morbid  and  depraved  taste,  whose  pernicious 
effects  cannot  be  accurately  calculated.  We  have  not  re- 
ferred to  this  before  because  we  have  not  found  a  place 
appropriate  to  its  introduction  until  now.  What  we  have 
in  mind  is  the  employment  of  children.  Mere  infants  are 
sometimes  exhibited  on  the  "boards"  in  various  acts,  and 
idlers  crowd  to  see  them,  perhaps  never  adequately  realiz- 
ing that  their  efficiency  has  been  attained  at  the  cost  of 
their  childhood.  A  few  years  since  in  Boston  a  mere 
child  who  had  been  playing  at  one  of  the  theatres  died. 
He  had  attracted  considerable  attention  and  was  regarded 
as  a  prodigy.  But  he  had  passed  through  severe  discipline, 
and  had  suffered  much  in  the  course  of  his  training.  The 
unnatural  excitement  in  which  he  lived,  the  polluted  and 
stifling  air  he  had  to  breathe  each  night,  the  late  hours, 
the  loss  of  sleep,  and  the  terrible  nerve  expenditure,  at 
last  broke  him  down ;  and  in  a  little  while  his  troubled 
spirit  had  taken  its  flight  to  that  world  where  there  are  no 
shows,  and  where  there  is  no  great  public  demanding  tor- 
tured babies  for  its  diversion.  But  before  the  boy-martyr 
ended  his  brief  earthly  career,  he  is  reported,  as  death  was 
chilling  his  blood  and  the  shores  of  eternity  were  dimly 
visible,  to  have  cried  out  in  pathetic  tones,  "  0  God  !  0 
God!!  is  there  no  room  yonder  for  a  little  fellow?"  In 
this  great  world  there  had  been  no  room  found  for  his 
childhood,  no  room  for  play,  for  dance,  and  laughing 
sport ;  and  as  he  was  about  to  depart  the  horrible  thought 
seems  to  have  distressed  his  mind  that  even  eternity  might 
be  so  crowded,  so  full  and  so  busy  as  to  leave  no  room  for 
him,  and  for  the  free-expansion  and  enjoyment  of  his 
child-soul.  The  suspicion  was  not  unnatural ;  but  we  arc 
happy  in  the  confidence  that  it  was  ungrounded.  There 
is  plenty  of  room  in  heaven  for  these  "little  fellows"; 
and  the  only  question  is,  whether  there  is  any  room  there 
for  the  big,  wjcked  fellows,  who  beat,  pinch,  starve  and 


408  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

abuse  defenseless  children,  or  for  those  other  big,  heartless 
fellows  who  find  pleasure  in  exhibitions  which  they  must 
know,  or  ought  to  know,  have  been  produced  at  the  cost  of 
tears  and  pain.  As  we  write  these  lines  there  is  in  a  Penn- 
sylvania prison  a  posture-trainer  waiting  trial  for  the 
murder  of  a  tiny  girl,  who  he  was  in  the  habit  of  flogging 
mercilessly  with  a  strap  whenever  she  failed  to  do  what  he 
told  her,  and  whose  life  he  finally  beat  out  with  a  shovel. 

In  view  of  such  cases  ought  not  a  stop  to  be  put  at  once 
to  juvenile  acrobatic  and  other  performances?  Ought  not 
magistrates  and  mayors  to  interfere  and  prevent  these  out- 
rages? We  believe  that  something  decisive  should  be  done 
in  the  premises,  not'  merely  on  account  of  the  children, 
but  on  account  of  Society  as  well.  All  entertainments  that 
involve  barbarous  features,  that  are  also  physically  haz- 
ardous, and  that  suggest  preparatory  suffering  are  injurious 
to  the  spectator.  Such  representations  tend  to  harden 
the  heart  and  to  render  it  callous  to  human  misery.  They 
brutalize,  and  prepare  the  way  for  cruel  child-scourgings, 
wife  beatings,  and  ferocious  murders.  The  taste  for  the 
horrible  in  amusement  seems  to  be  increasing,  as  the  titles 
of  plays,  illustrated  posters,  and  newspaper  criticisms 
abundantly  prove.  Blood-thirsty  dramas  are  quite  the 
rage,  and  thousands  feast  their  eyes  on  scenes  of  simulated 
anguish,  are  fascinated  and  delighted  by  the  mock  agonies 
of  writhing  wretches;  and  it  is  not  very  wonderful  that 
some  among  them  should  seek  to  perpetuate  this  pleasure 
by  attempting  to  reproduce  what  they  have  witnessed  in 
real  life.  Accompanying  this  thirst  for  savagery,  we  have 
a  most  depraved  demand  for  deformities,  monstrosities, 
and  for  the  hideous  and  repulsive  in  humanity.  Hence 
the  multiplications  of  "Dime  Museums,"  "Chambers  of 
Horrors,"  and  other  similar  places  where  the  misshapen 
and  distorted  are  exhibited.  Are  our  readers  aware  how 
these  " curiosities  "  are  generally  supplied?  Probably  few 


HI-MAX    MONSTROSITIES.  409 

among  them  have  ever  paid  any  attention  to  the  subject. 
Had  they  done  so  they  would  have  felt  outraged  as  we  felt 
when  we  discovered  that  they  were  "manufactured"  to 
meet  the  public  craving  for  the  unsightly  and  mispro- 
portioned.  On  this  point  Victor  Hugo  has  written  elo- 
quently when  explaining  the  misfortunes  of  Gwynplanne; 
and  Charles  G.  Leland  has  also  given  some  account  of  the 
terrible  business  in  the  following  extract  from  one  of  his 
letters  published  in  the  Chicago  Tribune : 

The  gaping  rustics  and  other  fools  who  gaze  with  wonder  on  the 
big-headed  boy  and  the  youth  with  a  head  set  the  wrong  way,  and 
other  human  monstrosities,  are  not  aware  that  these  are  produced 
artificially  by  unprincipled  scoundrels  of  broken-down  surgeons  and 
by  processes  of  incredible  cruelty.  The  familiar  of  the  Inquisition 
and  the  Red  Indian  never  yet  went  so  far  as  to  keep  a  young  girl  or 
boy  for  six  months  or  longer  in  constant  excruciating  agony,  tied 
down  to  a  table  while  the  head  and  spine  were  being  slowly  twisted 
to  a  hideous  malformation  and  the  ligaments  and  muscles  being 
gradually  cut  away.  Well,  all  of  this  was  done,  not  once  but  many 
times,  a  few  years  ago  by  a  wretch  named  Harper  in  London,  who 
regularly  supplied  circuses  and  shows  with  these  horrible  curiosities. 
Of  course  the  proprietors  knew  how  they  were  made.  Yet  when  we 
reflect  on  the  great  number  of  "  gentlemen  "  who  think  it  manly  or 
cynical  to  laugh  at  even  such  wickedness,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  the 
multitude  like  to  see  the  results  of  it. 

The  magistrate  surely  has  a  solemn  duty  to  discharge 
in  these  circumstances.  Exhibitions  of  child-actors  should 
be  strictly  prohibited,  and  the  prohibition  should  be 
rigidly  enforced  ;  and  as  to  deformities,  whether  young  or 
old,  their  appearance  before  an  audience  should  be  for- 
bidden on  pain  of  weighty  penalties.  The  result  of  de- 
cisive measures  in  these  directions,  tending,  as  they  would 
to  refine  the  popular  taste,  would  advance  the  interests  of 
the  legitimate  drama.  Suppression  of  the  stimulants  to 
cruelty,  combined  with  a  vigorous  oversight  of  what  is  put 
on  the  stage  in  the  cheap  shows,  where  more  regard  is  had 


410  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

for  the  quality  of  the  whisky  than  for  the  quality  of  the 
play,  would  aid  at  least  in  educating  the  community  up  to 
a  just  appreciation  of  what  is  worthy  its  approval  in  his- 
trionic art. 

These  animadversions  abundantly  indicate  the  imper- 
ative necessity  that  exists  for  amusement-reform.  But, 
while  we  are  thinking  of  this,  let  us  not  forget  the  kindred 
duty  of  rendering  it  possible  for  the  masses  to  partake  with 
their  more  favored  brethren  of  wholesome  entertainments. 
We  do  not  consider  as  we  ought  the  hard  condition  of  the 
lowly  millions  which  practically  cuts  them  off  from  refresh- 
ing recreations.  As  we  write  the  street-car  drivers  and 
conductors  of  New  York  are  memorializing  their  employ- 
ers to  reduce  their  hours  of  work  to  twelve.  Just  think 
what  this  modest  request  implies.  It  distinctly  intimates 
that  these  men  have  no  time  for  restful  pleasure,  and  that 
they  are  doomed  to  a  wearisome,  unbroken  round  of  slav- 
ish service.  For  them,  and  for  multitudes  like  them,  no 
cheery  and  gladsome  social  season  is  possible  ;  and  neither 
game  nor  song,  nor  harmless  mirth  brightens  the  dreary 
dead-levelism  of  their  existence.  Surely  twelve  hours  are 
enough  ;  but  when  they  do  not  suffice  the  burden  becomes 
a  tyranny,  a  mean  advantage  taken  of  the  necessities  of 
the  poor,  and  every  generous  soul  should  express  its  horror 
of  the  wrong  inflicted. 

The  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale,  than  whom  there  is  no 
truer  man  nor  truer  lover  of  his  race,  in  1877,  before  a 
Conference  Held  in  Philadelphia,  thus  describes  a  scene  he 
had  witnessed  when  visiting  a  certain  Union  for  Christian 
work  in  Providence. 

I  sat  in  the  great  amusement-room  one  evening,  watching  fifty 
or  more  young  men  and  boys  playing  bagatelle,  parlor  billiards, 
checkers,  chess,  and  the  rest,  and  I  wondered  that  not  one  woman 
joined  in  the  games  ;  for  there  were  as  many  as  twenty  girls  sitting 
by  themselves  in  a  corner  looking  on.  I  asked  the  lady  in  attendance 


A    CHEERLESS   PROCESSION.  411 

why  those  girls  did  not  join  in  the  games.  She  said  they  were  too 
tired.  Yet  it  was  an  entertainment  for  them  simply  to  come  into  the 
warm  room,  and  sit  and  look  on.  Think  of  that  my  dear  madam. 
Remember  that  the  girl  who  has  spent  eleven  hours  a  day  in  the  mak- 
ing of  paper  boxes,  so  that  your  embroidered  handkerchief,  for 
instance,  may  have  a  proper  place  to  sleep  in  when  you  also  go 
to  bed,  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  hour,  is  very  tired.  She  is  too 
.tired  to  read.  She  is  too  tired  to  listen  to  "improving  lectures."  She 
is  too  tired  even  to  play  dominos.  She  can  only  amuse  herself  by 
looking  on. 

And  yet,  these  are  our  sisters,  and  the  future  mothers 
of  our  Republic  whose  drudgery  is  thus  pathetically  por- 
trayed. What  are  we  coming  to  when  our  insane  greed 
deprives  even  these  of  recreation  ?  We  say  to  them  "  be 
amused  "  as  the  worldly  professor  of  religion,  satirized  by 
James,  says  to  the  indigent,  "be  clothed,  be  fed;"  but 
like  him,  we  come  not  to  their  relief.  Our  desire  to  be 
rich  is  so  intense  that  we  rob  these  poor  girls  of  their 
strength,  and  thus  effectually  exclude  them  from  the  re- 
laxation which  their  age  and  sex  demand.  Millions  of 
others  all  over  the  world,  both  men  and  women,  youths 
and  maidens,  are  also  banished  by  the  bitter  hardships  of 
their  lot  from  everything  that  is  fitted  to  yield  them 
pleasure.  Onward  they  move,  a  cheerless  procession  into 
ever-deepening  gloom  of  moody  melancholy;  and  their 
piteous  moans  are  passed  unheeded,  and  their  cry  for  some 
respite  from  the  sorrowful  darkness  is  denounced  as  a 
threat  against  the  peace  and  order  of  Society.  Philanthro- 
pists and  Christians  in  a  multitude  of  instances  profess 
the  deepest  sympathy  for  them,  and  yet  hesitate  to  advo- 
cate the  only  course  that  can  deliver  them  from  their 
evil  plight.  These  well-meaning  persons  are  willing  to 
provide  them  rooms  for  social  gatherings  and  harm- 
less games,  but  still  they  exact,  as  others  do,  such 
exhausting  hours  of  toil  as  neutralize  their  benevolent 
intentions.  When  will  we  learn  common  sense?  When 


STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

will  we  see  that  the  poor  need  not  our  petty  gifts,  our  toys 
and  baubles,  half  as  much  as  leisure  and  strength  to  enjoy 
them?  Hazlitt  declares  that  players  are  "  the  only  honest 
hypocrites."  "  They  are,  as  it  were,  train-bearers  in  the 
pageant  of  life,  and  hold  a  glass  up  to  humanity,  frailer 
than  itself.  We  see  ourselves  at  second-hand  in  them.*' 
Ah!  may  not  the  suspicion  be  entertained  that  Philanthro- 
pists and  Christians  also  are  at  best  but  "  honest  hypo- 
crites/' assuming  the  role  of  "  benefactor/'  while  they  are 
undesignedly  crushing  beneath  an  iron-shod  foot  the  bleed- 
ing heart  of  dependent  multitudes.  It  is  said,  that 
Charles  VI.  when  authorizing  the  actors  to  represent  the 
"  Mysteries  of  the  Passion/'  styled  them  his  "  loved  and 
dear  co-mates;"  and  Michelet  asks,  "what  could  be 
j uster  ?"  "A  hapless  actor  himself,  a  poor  player  in  the 
grand  historic  mystery,  he  went  to  see  his  co -mates — saints, 
angels  and  devils,  perform  their  miserable  travesty  of  the 
Passion.  He  was  not  only  spectator  :  he  was  spectacle  as 
well.  His  people  went  to  see  in  him  the  passion  of  royalty. " 
And  to  our  way  of  thinking,  these  men  with  high-sounding 
titles  associating  them  with  the  loving  Christ,  are  practi- 
cally "co-mates"  with  the  lordly  and  worldly  company 
whose  conscienceless  exactions  perpetuate  the  mysterious 
Passion  of  humanity;  and  so  long  as  they  shall  fail  to 
adopt  a  course  in  actual  harmony  with  their  benevolent 
pretensions,  they  too  will  remain  mere  "  spectators "  of 
sufferings  they  ought  to  alleviate  ;  and,  what  is  worse,  a 
"spectacle  "  themselves  of  impotent  and  scepterless  royalty. 
Here  ends  our  paper,  and  it  ends  not  as  hopefully  as 
we  could  have  wished.  A  bitter  termination  this  to  a 
chapter  on  amusements.  Would  that  we  could  in  honesty 
have  written  otherwise!  Impossible,  however,  such  a  feat 
with  all  the  sad  facts  before  us,  and  which  could  not  fairly 
be  ignoied.  We  have  tried  "to  set  down  naught  in  mal- 
ice ; "  but  we  have  been  compelled  to  pen  what  has  filled 


EXEUNT  OMNES,  4l3 

our  own  heart  with  sorrow  ;  and  as  we  close  our  painful 
task  we  can  but  adopt  the  melancholy  envoi  of  the  Master 
Showman  of  Vanity  Fair  : 

The  play  is  done;  the  curtain  drops, 
Slowly  falling  to  the  prompter's  bell ; 
A  moment  yet  the  actor  stops, 
And  looks  around,  to  say  farewell. 
It  is  an  irksome  word  and  task; 
And  when  he's  laughed  and  said  his  say, 
He  shows,  as  he  removes  the  mask, 
A  face  that's  anything  but  gay. 


IX. 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  SOCIETY. 

There  is  an  inmost  centre  in  us  all, 

Where  truth  abides  in  fullness  ;  and  around 

Wall  upon  wall,  the  gross  flesh  hems  it  in, 

This  perfect,  clear,  perception — which  is  truth; 

A  baffling  and  perverting  carnal  mesh 

Blinds  it,  and  makes  all  error  ;  and,  to  know 

Rather  consists  in  opening  out  a  way 

Whence  the  imprisoned  splendor  may  escape, 

Than  in  effecting  entry  for  a  light 

Supposed  to  be  without.    *    *    * 

*    *    *    Men  have  oft  grown  old  among  their  books 

To  die,  case-hardened  in  their  ignorance, 

Whose  careless  youth  had  promised  what  long  years 

Of  unremitting  labor  ne'er  performed. 

Robert  Browning. 

TEAN  PAUL  RICHTER  reminds  us  that  "when  An- 
*J  tipater  demanded  fifty  children  as  hostages  from  the 
Spartans  they  offered  him  in  their  stead  a  hundred  men 
of  distinction."  He  continues:  "The  Spartans  thought 
rightly  and  nobly.  In  the  world  of  childhood  all  posterity 
stands  before  us,  upon  which  we.,  like  Moses  upon  the 
promised  land,  may  only  gaze,  but  not  enter."  If  our  good 
Jean  Paul  is  correct,  and  that  he  is  few,  if  any,  will  ques- 
tion, then  no  nation  can  afford  to  jeopardize  its  youth.  Its 
own  future  greatness,  dignity  and  happiness,  are  stored  up 
in  its  infant  citizens.  We  cannot  penetrate  the  coming 
Canaan  that  is  hidden  in  their  souls;  but  we  know  what- 
ever it  may  possess  of  beauty,  richness  and  of  fruitfulness, 

414 


IMPORTANCE    OF   CHILDHOOD.  415 

when  it  is  revealed,  and  when  it  is  transferred  to  actual 
life,  must  largely  depend  on  their  early  training.  What 
they  are,  and  what  they  are  made,  especially  in  the  forma- 
tive period  of  existence,  America  and  Europe  hereafter 
will  be.  We  cannot,  therefore,  expose  them  to  neglect  or 
danger.  The  evil  Antipatersof  our  age  may  take  our  men 
and  women,  though  even  these  we  should  not  yield  with- 
out a  struggle;  but  as  for  our  boys  and  girls  we  must  cry 
"  hands  off,"  we  will  not  risk  them  in  the  merciless  grip  of 
vice  and  ignorance.  Adults,  whether  leaders  or  followers, 
are  already  developed  and  molded  for  weal  or  woe,  and 
comparatively  little  now  can  be  effected  for  their  improve- 
ment, unless  it  be  accomplished  by  the  grace  of  God. 
They  may,  of  course,  be  benefited  in  some  small  degree  by 
books  and  study,  but  they  cannot  be  recast  and  refash- 
ioned by  merely  human  agencies.  It  is,  however,  happily 
different  with  children.  They  are  pliant,  ductile,  plastic, 
and  wait  the  touch  of  the  sculptor's  hand.  Jean  Paul 
tells  us  that  the  old  fresco  painters  laid  their  colors  on  the 
wet  plaster,  and  as  they  faded  renewed  them  until  they 
became  permanent  in  gleaming  brightness.  So  the  young 
mind  is  absorbent,  and  what  it  receives  in  early  years  is 
the  foundation  of  future  acquirements;  and  though  it  may 
seem  to  disappear  it  is  still  retained  and  imparts  tone  and 
hue  to  everything  that  comes  after.  When  the  metal  is 
fluid  it  can  easily  be  run  into  any  mold,  and  when  the  lake 
lies  radiant  in  the  summer  sunlight  any  keel  may  furrow 
its  placid  bosom;  but  cold  iron  resists  even  the  stroke  of 
heavy  hammers,  and  a  frozen  sea  checks  with  its  rigidity 
the  adventurous  attempts  of  mightiest  ships  to  invade  its 
solitude.  So  when  the  soul  is  fresh  from  the  Creator's  love 
it  can  readily  be  shaped  into  almost  any  character ;  but 
afterwards,  especially  in  the  season  of  maturity,  it  is  with 
difficulty  modified  even  by  severe  and  bitter  experiences; 
and  ice-locked  by  prejudice  and  dominant  habits,  it  resents 


416  STUDIES  IX  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

the  intrusion  of  any  new  voyager  who  would  sail  across 
its  mysterious  depths.  Of  course  we  are  not  teaching 
that  education  is  completed  during  the  morning  hours  of 
existence,  or  that  it  can  be  carried  forward  mechanically 
and  without  the  cooperation  of  its  subjects.  We  be- 
lieve that  it  is  progressive,  extends,  through  life,  and 
depends  as  much  on  the  diligence  of  the  student  as  it  does 
on  the  faithfulness  and  fitness  of  the  instructor.  We  are 
of  those  who  smile  at  the  enthusiastic  youth  who  tele- 
graphed his  mother  when  he  had  successfully  passed  his 
examination  for  graduation  at  Yale, — "  Educated!"  Per- 
haps he  himself  laughed  heartily  at  the  irony  of  his  dis- 
patch ;  but  whether  he  did  or  not  the  fact  remains  the 
same  that  he  had  only  reached  a  definite  stage  in  the  his- 
tory of  his  personal  development,  that  others  lay  before 
him,  and  that  what  he  was  when  he  left  the  college,  and 
what  he  is  today  or  shall  be  in  coming  years,  must  be  in  a 
good  degree  attributed  to  his  own  endeavors. 

Primarily,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  parent  to  care  for  the 
education  of  the  young.  No  decree  of  government 
and  no  State  system  of  adoption  can  exonerate  him 
from  his  obligation ;  neither  can  the  latter  agency 
ever  entirely  supersede  him  without  detriment  to  the 
child.  Fathers  and  mothers  cannot  without  recre- 
ancy to  their  trust  depute  their  office  to  any  corporation 
under  heaven.  They  may  with  propriety  avail  themselves 
of  facilities,  either  public  or  private,  that  are  within 
their  reach ;  but  however  high  the  grade  of  the  school 
they  patronize,  or  however  skillful  the  teacher  they  em- 
ploy, they  ought  themselves  to  exercise  an  oversight  of 
everything  pertaining  to  the  training  of  their  children. 
Unhappily  at  this  point  they  are  frequently  careless.  They 
often  take  for  granted,  because  their  boys  or  girls  are  in 
some  academy,  that  all  is  being  done  for  them  that  can  be 
done,  and  that  they  are  personally  free  from  further  con- 


PATERNAL   OBLIGATIONS.  417 

cern.  In  this  fatal  delusion  they  generally  continue  until 
some  misdeed  or  some  glaring  evidence  of  incapacity  on 
the  part  of  these  home-neglected  ones  arouses  them  to  the 
truth.  Then  they  perceive  that  they  themselves  are  not 
without  fault;  that  they  have  not  only  failed  in  direct 
superintendence  of  what  has  been  committed  to  instruc- 
tors, but  have  deprived  their  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
benefits  arising  from  close  and  intimate  relations  with 
their  parents.  In  not  a  few  instances  the  dereliction  of 
the  father  leads  to  dereliction  on  the  part  of  the  mother ; 
he  is  absorbed  in  business,  she  in  fashion  ;  he  in  politics, 
she  in  public  reforms;  he  in  angry  disputes  about  nothing, 
and  she  in  endless  gossip  about  le«s — and  in  the  meanwhile 
their  sons  and  daughters  grow  up  as  they  may,  which  at 
the  best  is  badly  enough. 

But  however  devoted  heads  of  families  may  be  to  this 
sacred  mission,  they  cannot  fail  to  be  materially  aided  by 
outside  educational  appliances.  We  would  never,  or  if 
ever,  only  in  peculiar  circumstances,  encourage  attempts 
to  train  a  child  in  the  retirement  of  home.  However  ad- 
mirable the  tutors  may  be,  there  is  an  exclusiveness  about 
such  a  method  not  in  accord  with  American  ideas,  and  on 
the  whole  its  results  are  not  so  satisfactory  as  we  could 
wish.  The  schoolhouse,  the  comparative  independent 
position  of  the  teacher,  the  intercourse,  and  even  the  rival- 
ries and  competitions,  have  all  advantages  for  the  scholar. 
By  these  his  ambition  is  aroused,  his  self-reliance  is  pro- 
moted, his  latent  powers  are  quickened  and  habits  of  self- 
application  are  fostered. 

The  Common  School  system  of  our  country  is  the  fruit 
both  of  sound  philanthropy  and  of  sagacious  patriotism. 
It  provides  for  the  children  of  rich  and  poor  alike,  in  a 
measure  remedies  the  inequalities  of  social  position,  and 
removes  impediments  from  the  path  of  the  unfortunate. 
In  the  proper  sense  of  the  term  it  is  not  charity;  for 
27 


418  STUDIES  IN"  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

while  it  is  philanthropic  in  spirit  it  really  confers  what  is 
the  right  of  every  one,  having  been  adopted  by  all  for  the 
sake  of  all.  If  it  is  open  to  any  criticism — and  here  we 
refer  exclusively  to  its  underlying  principle,  and  not  to 
details  of  administration — it  is,  that  it  countenances 
"paternalism"  in  government,  and  seems  to  run  counter 
to  that  "individualism"  which  is  so  marked  a  feature  of 
our"  institutions.  This  implication  is  unquestionably  just, 
and  we  have  no  desire  te  controvert  it.  But  while  we  con- 
cede what  is  indeed  undeniable,  it  should  not  be  over- 
looked that  this  type  of  "paternalism"  is  very  different 
from  that  which  we  have  reviewed,  and  in  its  operations 
does  not  interfere  with  individual  enterprise,  or  with  the 
full  exercise  and  unhampered  expression  of  individual 
freedom.  Our  Common  Schools  are  not  designed  to  teach 
our  future  citizens  that  the  State  is  henceforward  to  think 
for  them,  and  act  for  them,  but  rather  to  qualify  them  to 
think  and  act  for  themselves.  They  are  not  intended  to 
encourage  their  pupils  to  rely  on  an  official  bureau,  but  to 
rely  on  their  own  common  sense  and  energy.  They  may 
not  entirely  succeed  in  carrying  out  this  purpose,  never- 
theless it  is  this,  and  none  other,  that  is  contemplated  in 
their  creation.  It  may  also  serve  to  justify  the  kind  of 
"paternalism"  involved  in  their  organization  to  remem- 
ber that  they  are  in  an  important  sense  a  measure  of 
national  defence.  As  the  State  is  empowered  to  raise  an 
army  and  a  navy  for  the  protection  of  the  country  from 
foreign  aggressions  or  domestic  insurrections,  so  is  it  also 
bound  to  shield  itself  from  dangers  springing  from  ignor- 
ance and  stolid  stupidity.  Intelligence  and  morality  are 
absolutely  indispensable  to  the  security  and  perpetuity  of 
free  institutions ;  and,  consequently,  as  self-preservation 
is  one  of  the  first  laws  of  personal  existence,  and  must  be 
equally  a  primal  duty  of  a  commonwealth,  their  culture 
cannot  with  safety  be  neglected.  Indeed  so  reasonable  is 


THE  RIGHT  TO  BE  EDUCATED.  410 

this  principle,  that  it  is  questionable  whether  it  is  carried 
as  far  as  it  ought  to  be.  We  are  inclined  to  believe  that 
it  is  not.  "Compulsory  education/'  as  it  is  termed, 
though  generally  recognized  as  sound  in  theory,  is  not 
uniformly  enforced  in  practice.  Inadequate  legislation 
and  the  indifference  of  the  people,  are  doubtless  to  blame 
for  the  failure  to  bring  all  of  our  children  under  the 
influence  of  some  school,  either  public  or  private.  Reforms 
are,  therefore,  needed  at  this  point.  The  law  on  the  sub- 
ject should  be  the  same  in  all  of  our  States,  and  should 
be  impartially  administered.  No  exceptions  should  be 
allowed.  Every  child  should  be  compelled  to  attend 
somewhere  that  it  may  receive  instruction. 

There  is  a  forcible  objection  to  compulsory  education, 
which,  if  it  is  ever  obviated,  will  call  forth  a  further  exer- 
cise of  "paternalism."  We  refer  to  the  fact  that  many 
children  are  obliged  at  an  early  age  to  earn  their  own  live- 
lihood. If  they  shall  be  compelled  to  attend  school  who 
will  undertake  to  feed  and  clothe  them  ?  Their  parents 
may  be  vicious,  and  hence  be  unwilling  to  support  them ; 
or  they  may  be  poor,  and  consequently  be  unable  to  do  so. 
On  either  supposition  their  support  must  be  provided  for. 
The  great  charter  of  our  freedom  defines  certain  inalienable 
rights,  such  as  "life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 
These  are  the  privileges  of  adults  ;  but  would  it  not  be  well 
to  add  "education,"  as  this  has  assuredly  much  to  do  with 
the  maintenance  and  enjoyment  of  the  other  three  ?  It 
seems  to  us  that  this  also  is  a  right,  and  one  in  which  the 
child  should  be  protected  by  all  the  resources  of  the  nation. 
He  cannot  care  for  himself,  he  knows  not  how  to  guide  his 
conduct,  and  it  does  seem  unjust  that  he  should  be  handed 
over  to  ignorance  and  helplessness  simply  because  his  father 
and  mother  are  either  criminal  or  unfortunate.  And  this 
leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that,  under  such  conditions,  the 
government  should  provide  for  the  necessities  of  children, 


STUDIES  i:sr  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

rather  than  permit  them  to  grow  up  uninformed  and  un- 
disciplined. 

Laws  prohibiting  their  employment  in  mines,  factories 
and  in  other  species  of  toil  should  be  enforced,  and  where 
they  do  not  exist  they  should  be  enacted.  If  they  were 
rigidly  excluded  from  the  labor  market  until  they  are  fif- 
teen or  sixteen  years  of  age,  it  would  be  better  for  them 
and  better  for  the  country.  They  would  be  physically 
stronger  for  this  exemption,  and  we  believe  they  would  be 
morally  better.  Premature  burdens  exhaust  the  strength, 
and  association  with  their  seniors  generally  leads  them  to 
imitate  their  bad  qualities.  They  are  taxed  before  they 
can  endure,  and  they  are  tempted  before  they  are  able  to 
resist.  Eead  this  excerpt  from  a  Boston  letter,  and  ask 
what  very  likely  will  be  the  future  of  the  class  described  : 

The  omnivorous  big  stores  here  hive  hundreds  of  little  girls  all 
day  long,  label  them  with  a  number,  and  apply  to  all  the  general  and 
appropriate  name  of  "Cash!"  Of  these  one-fourth  break  down 
within  five  years  and  the  other  three-fourths  do  worse.  Five-cent 
stores  are  increasing  and  swallowing  up  these  infant  clerks  by  the 
hundred.  Infantile  muscles  patter  about  in  these  commercial  peni- 
tentiaries from  seven  in  the  morning  till  nine  or  ten  at  night,  month 
in  and  month  out.  The  air  is  not  fragrant,  and  sunshine  never  enters. 
These  children  may  be  seen  going  home  by  the  score  at  eleven  at 
night.  They  recreate  at  that  time  by  gossiping  with  37xnmgsters  in 
the  transition  state  between  boyhood  and  youth  at  the  corners  and 
under  brilliantly-lighted  saloon  windows,  when  the  good  Bostonian  is 
at  home  and  abed. 

Such  exhibitions  ought  to  be  impossible ;  moreover,  at 
the  age  we  have  specified,  the  young  would  still  have 
ample  opportunity  to  learn  a  trade,  to  acquire  business 
habits,  or  to  qualify  themselves  for  a  profession ;  and  in 
addition  to  this,  their  withdrawal  from  the  pursuits  in 
which  they  are  now  engaged,  would  diminish  competition, 
would  relieve  various  occupations  from  the  curse  of  over- 
crowding, would  tend  to  advance  wages,  and  would  thus 


COMPULSORY    EDUCATION.  421 

increase  the  ability  of  parents  to  provide  for  the  suste- 
nance of  their  families.  Now,  in  this  indirect  way,  the 
State»could  secure  to  many  boys  and  girls,  who  at  present 
are  unable  to  attend  school,  the  advantages  of  a  suitable 
education,  and  that,  too,  without  disturbing  in  any  sense 
domestic  relations.  But  it  is  admitted  that  there  are 
eases  where  something  more  would  have  to  be  done. 
There  are  households  where  penury  is  a  perpetual  guest, 
which  no  efforts  succeed  in  expelling.  They  are  deserv- 
ing and  virtuous,  and  yet  they  cannot  get  rid  of  their 
gaunt  visitor.  Disease  has  come  and  the  man  has  been 
a  long  while  out  of  employment  and  bills  have  accumu- 
lated; or  the  babies  have  arrived  somewhat  too  frequently, 
and  what  with  doctor's  fees,  hard  times,  and  just  a  little 
shiftlessness,  a  mere  suspicion  of  it,  nothing  more,  the 
older  sons  and  daughters  must  earn  at  least  enough  to 
supply  themselves  with  food  and  apparel.  It  seems  like 
inconsiderate  cruelty  to  force  these  children  away  from 
their  work  that  they  may  be  instructed  in  the  mysteries  of 
elementary  knowledge.  To  meet  the  needs  of  those  who 
are  thus  unhappily  situated  there  should  be  established 
public  institutions  where  the  pupils  should  not  only  be 
educated,  but  where  they  should  also  be  housed,  clothed, 
and  fed.  They  should  partake  of  the  general  character 
of  modest  boarding  schools;  and  it  should  be  no  more  dis- 
creditable to  be  an  inmate  of  such  an  establishment  than 
to  attend  West  Point,  the  expenses  of  which  are  paid  by 
the  people,  or  Harvard  College,  whose  magnificent  endow- 
ments, the  gifts  of  philanthropy,  far  more  than  the  fees 
of  the  student,  keep  open  its  doors.  Nor  need  these  pro- 
posed institutions  seriously  affect  family  relations. 

We  would  not  countenance  any  plan  that  disrupts  the 
ties  that  bind  parents  to  their  children;  and  ours  contem- 
plates no  such  outrage.  Wealthy  and  well-to-do  fathers 
frequently  send  their  boys  and  girls  to  some  distant  Acad- 


422  STUDIES    IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

emy,  and  when  this  course  is  pursued  we  do  not  accuse 
them  of  faithlessness  to  their  trust,  or  denounce  them  for 
discarding  their  offspring.  We  know  that  they  are  not 
necessarily  guilty  of  either  crime.  They  are  trying,  at 
least  generally,  to  do  what  is  best  for  the  lad,  and  if  he  is 
sick  they  go  to  him  or  bring  him  home  and  in  various  ways 
constantly  manifest  their  interest  in  his  welfare.  So,  like- 
wise, we  believe  it  possible  to  make  the  children  of  the 
indigent  beneficiaries  without  alienating  them  from  their 
parents,  and  without  alienating  their  parents  from  them. 
Going  to  a  State  Boarding  School  involves  no  other  sacri- 
fices than  have  to  be  made  when  going  to  a  private  one. 
In  the  former  there  could  be  days  for  visitation,  holidays 
and  vacations,  when  family  associations  could  be  renewed, 
and  in  seasons  of  sickness  the  youthful  sufferer  could  be 
cared  for  by  his  mother  if  it  should  be  within  her  power 
to  assume  the  charge.  There  is  certainly  nothing  fatal  to 
the  permanence  and  integrity  of  the  home  in  arrange- 
ments such  as  these.  But  it  may  be  suggested  that  many 
persons  would  avail  themselves  of  this  provision  to  relieve 
themselves  of  responsibilities,  and  that  it  would  tempt  them 
to  plead  extreme  and  confirmed  poverty  for  the  sake  of 
getting  rid  of  their  helpless  little  ones.  Possibly  such 
instances  would  occur.  What  then?  Are  we  to  permit 
thousands  to  be  deprived  of  invaluable  advantages,  be- 
cause the  representatives  of  some  hundreds  are  base 
enough  to  obtain  them  under  false  pretences?  Men  vote 
who  have  no  right  to  do  so,  but  we  do  not  abolish  suffrage 
on  that  account. 

It  has  been  said  that  Foundling  Hospitals  have  had  a 
tendency  to  increase  illegitimate  births.  We  doubt  it, 
and  no  statistics  can  prove  it.  It  never  has  been  the  cus- 
tom for  women  to  publish  their  shame  ;  and  as  they  have 
always  had  various  ways  of  concealing  it  from  the  eyes  of 
officials,  we  question  whether  any  adequate  idea  of  its 


FOUXDLING    HOSPITALS.  423 

prevalence  could  be  formed  until  these  hospitals  were  estab- 
lished. But,  admitting  that  they  have  had  the  tendency 
alleged  against  them,  has  it  ever  been  estimated  how  fur 
they  have  served  to  diminish  infanticide  and  other  crimes 
which  need  not  here  be  specified  ?  We  believe  that  they 
have  prevented  many  a  case  of  child-murder,  and  have 
done  much  toward  deepening  the  instinctive  feeling  that 
life  is  sacred.  But  even  were  it  otherwise,  shall  they 
close  their  doors  and  leave  the  unhappy  innocents  to  per- 
ish because  their  benevolent  purpose  may  be  perverted  ? 
We  would  not  care  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  any 
such  harsh  and  illogical  proceeding ;  neither  are  we  pre- 
pared to  abandon  the  plan  we  advocate  to  relieve  the 
worthy  poor  of  a  burden,  at  the  same  time  conferring  a 
boon  on  their  children,  because  some  who  are  unworthy 
would  probably  make  it  the  occasion  for  imposition.  But 
is  it  not  likely  that  this  difficulty  is  exaggerated,  and  that 
in  the  practical  working  of  our  scheme  it  would  not  be 
nearly  as  great  as  some  imagine?  People  of  any  charac- 
ter are  not  usually  willing  to  advertise  their  bankrupt 
fortunes  and  avow  their  incompetence  to  care  for  their 
own,  as  they  would  be  obliged  to  do  in  applying  for  gov- 
ernment relief.  This  itself  would  act  as  a  restraint  to  pre 
vent  fraud.  Then  appropriate  penalties  would  still  fur- 
ther diminish  the  frequency  of  its  perpetration ;  for  the 
disastrous  consequences  of  almost  certain  discovery  would 
intimidate  many.  But  still  assuming  that  miserable  mis- 
creants would  attempt,  and  succeed  in  the  attempt,  to 
deceive  the  authorities,  it  would  be  much  better  for  the  chil- 
dren's sake  that  they  be  withdrawn  from  their  protection. 
The  loss  the  nation  would  sustain  through  their  trickery 
would  be  far  less  than  it  would  ultimately  suffer  were  their 
boys  and  girls  to  grow  up  under  their  influence.  Being 
dishonest  themselves,  probably  they  would  make  their  off' 


424  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

X 

spring  dishonest  also,  and  the  evil  thus  perpetrated  would 
be  immeasurably  worse  than  the  imposition  itself. 

This  thought  calls  to  mind  the  criminal  classes.  They, 
too,  have  a  progeny,  inheriting  shame  and  sorrow,  and 
apparently  with  only  the  nefarious  pursuits  of  their  sires 
open  before  them.  They  are  taught  to  lie,  beg,  steal,  and 
the  only  ideas  furnished  them  of  life  are  presented  in  the 
drunkenness,  cruelty  and  general  viciousness  of  fathers  and 
mothers.  God  help  them!  What  can  we  reasonably  expect 
from  such  a  brood  but  pollution  and  villainy?  How  can 
we  hope  that  they  may  rise  superior  to  their  circumstances? 

We  would  have  the  State  lay  its  strong  hand  on  all 
such  little  victims  ;  we  would  have  it  rescue  them  from 
their  unhomelike  homes  ;  and  we  would  have  it  separate 
them  entirely  from  their  parents  or  at  least  until  these 
parents  abjure  their  evil  courses,  and  have  it  rear  them  at 
public  expense.  Confirmed  dissipation  proven  beyond  a 
doubt,  and  settled  habits  of  crime,  should  be  regarded  as 
the  death  of  parental  rights,  and  the  orphans  should  be 
adopted  by  the  nation.  This  were  indeed  a  wise  "pater- 
nalism "  on  the  part  of  the  government ;  for  by  this 
means  it  would  gradually  diminish  wrong-doing,  would 
render  life  and  property  safer,  and  would  decrease  its 
annual  expenditure  for  courts,  legal  processes  and  prisons. 
It  will  be  said  that  the  measure  is  exceedingly  heroic,  and 
we  admit  it ;  but  only  such  treatment  will  ever  materially 
lessen  the  number  of  outrages  which  at  present  appall 
Society.  If  there  is  ever  to  be  a  change  for  the  better,  we 
must  begin  at  the  fountain-head.  The  money-cost  of  such 
a  reform  would  be  inconsiderable  in  view  of  the  beneficial 
results.  Multitudes  of  ragged  urchins  would  be  taken  off 
the  streets  ;  the  work  they  do  could  be  performed  by  older 
persons ;  we  would  save  in  the  direction  of  penitentiaries 
and  bridewells,  and  the  entire  community  would  be  better 
and  happier, 


RELIGION   AXD   EDUCATION.  42o 

Herder  has  shown  that  all  the  nations  received  writing 
and  the  earlier  forms  of  civilization  from  the  teachers  of 
religion;  and  in  large  measure  may  be  traced  to  their 
influence  subsequent  advancement  or  enlightenment,  the 
founding  of  schools  and  colleges,  and  the  decisive 
triumphs  of  modern  culture.  If  what  they  have  con- 
tributed toward  the  promotion  and  extension  of  learning 
in  the  world  could  be  blotted  out,  the  density  and  prevalence 
of  ignorance  to  day  would  be  appalling.  There  is  scarcely 
an  Academy  or  a  University  in  Europe  or  America  that  has 
not  been  fostered,  if  not  originally  established,  by  the  fol- 
lowers of  Christ.  What  the  State  itself  has  accomplished 
in  this  direction  is  mainly  due  to  their  inspiration.  They 
have  ever  been  leaders  in  this  great  enterprise,  and  in 
the  future  they  cannot  afford  to  be  mere  camp-followers; 
nor  can  Society  afford  to  have  them  straggle  into  a  position 
so  ignoble.  It  is  still  their  duty  to  create  public  senti- 
ment on  this  subject,  to  stimulate  the  ruling  authorities  to 
right  endeavors,  to  cooperate  in  all  movements  for  the 
growth  of  popular  intelligence,  and  to  encourage  by  their 
liberality  and  consecrated  energy  the  cause  of,  what  is 
termed,  "higher  education/'  While  we  express  this  con- 
viction, we  do  not  believe  that  the  Bible  holds  the  Church 
responsible  for  the  secular  school,  either  for  its  origin  or 
support.  She  is  indeed  to  advocate  it,  plead  for  it,  and 
sacrifice,  if  necessary,  011  its  behalf;  but  it  is  not  her  busi- 
ness by  any  divine  decree  to  insist  on  superseding  the  civil 
powers  in  its  formation  or  direction.  We  readily  concede 
were  the  State  oblivious  to  its  obligations  and  determined 
to  enshroud  the  people  in  mental  night,  that  she  ought  to 
take  the  matter  in  her  own  hands,  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
avert  so  terrible  a  calamity.  This  she  would  be  justified 
in  doing  under  the  general  commission  she  has  received  to 
champion  everything  relating  to  the  elevation  of  mankind. 
In  some  circumstances  this  course  would  be  legitimate 


426  STUDIES    IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

enough.  What  we  claim  is  that  the  Church  has  no  founda- 
tion in  the  Scriptures  for  the  assumption  of  exclusive  con- 
trol over  every  department  of  education;  and  that  what 
she  may  be  bound  to  do  under  exceptional  conditions 
is  no  rule  for  her  guidance  under  different  conditions. 
We  all  know  that  Sacerdotalism  asserts  a  prerogative,  a 
God-imparted  authority  over  the  human  mind,  and  that  in 
consequence  its  training  must  not  be  entrusted  to  any 
hands  not  priestly.  Churches  animated  by  this  spirit  are 
not  slow  to  denounce  our  common  schools  as  "  godless," 
as  "seminaries  of  infidelity,"  and  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
demand  that  the  youth  of  the  land  should  be  committed 
to  their  care.  This  arrogant  pretension,  without  basis 
either  in  religion  or  reason,  has  found  an  echo  in  some 
Protestant  circles,  and  we  have  been  treated  to  essays  on 
the  need  that  exists  for  parochial  schools.  In  these  efforts 
to  revive  Mediaevalism  it  is  quietly  taken  for  granted  that 
secular  instruction  is  injurious,  and  is  condemned  by  the 
inspired  writers.  Neither  of  these  representations  can  be 
proved;  and  we  regard  the  position  taken,  not  only  as 
untenable,  but  as  an  attempted  usurpation  which  every 
freeman  is  bound  to  resist. 

To  the  Church  has  been  specially  confided  the  spirit- 
ual development  of  humanity;  and  in  this  work  she  is 
practically  without  a  rival,  except  in  the  domain  of  the 
family.  She  may,  if  she  so  pleases,  establish  her  own 
schools  and  found  her  own  universities,  where  the  arts 
and  sciences  can  be  studied  under  her  personal  superin- 
tendence; but  she  has  no  right  to  proscribe  similar  insti- 
tutions begun  and  sustained  by  the  civil  government  as 
an  invasion  of  her  prerogative.  All  that  she  is  really 
empowered  to  do,  all  that  the  Almighty  holds  her  ac- 
countable for,  is  expressed  by  the  phrase  "religious  en- 
lightenment." The  duty  suggested  by  these  words  she 
cannot  neglect  without  guilt,  neither  can  she  escape  cen.- 


THE    AIM    OF   EDUCATION.  427 

sure  if  she  discards  it  or  seeks  to  depute  it  to  other 
agencies.  She  is  the  Divinely  appointed  and  qualified 
teacher  of  the  conscience  and  the  heart;  and  this  honor 
is  so  great,  and  the  mission  itself  is  so  sublime,  that  she 
may  well  cease  to  clamor  for  the  absolute  and  exclusive 
control  of  the  intellect. 

Of  late  much  has  been  written  regarding  the  true  ideal 
of  education,  and  a  vigorous  effort  is  being  put  forth  in 
various  quarters,  not  only  to  correct  erroneous  conceptions 
of  its  nature,  but  to  improve  and  even  revolutionize  its 
methods.  The  old  system  of  cramming  is  being  pretty 
generally  denounced  ;  and  if  the  agitation  continues,  the 
most  salutary  changes  may  be  expected.  '  It  is  now  being 
said,  "that  man,  not  scholarship,  is  the  aim  of  educa- 
tion " ;  and  in  harmony  with  this  thought  a  distinguished 
author  has  added,  "Do  not,  like  common  cultivators, 
water  the  individual  branches,  but  the  roots,  and  they 
will  moisten  and  unfold  the  rest."  In  a  little  book  enti- 
tled Guesses  at  Truth,  we  are  told  that  the  end  of  all 
schooling  is  to  "educe,"  or  to  call  forth,  and  bring  out 
whatever  is  within  the  mind,  and  is  not  primarily  or 
mainly  to  "instruct,"  or  to  impose  a  form  from  without. 
According  to  this  volume,  we  are  to  "  nourish  and  culti- 
vate the  mental  faculties,  and  not  overcrowd  them  with 
a  mass  of  information."  John  Stuart  Mill's  conception 
of  this  work  includes,  "  whatever  we  do  for  ourselves  or 
is  done  for  us  by  others,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  us 
nearer  the  perfection  of  our  natures."  Colonel  Francis 
"W.  Parker,  Principal  of  the  Cook  County  Normal  School, 
has  expressed  himself  in  <full  sympathy  with  this  view, 
lie  insists  on  the  development  of  thought-power,  and  does 
not  attach  much  importance  to  the  learning  of  mere 
words.  He  remarks  : 

True  teaching  mast  be  the  adaptation  of  the  subject  taught  to 
the  learning  mind.  "Whatever  is  above  the  mental  grasp  of  the 


428  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

pupil  only  serves  to  weary  and  disgust  the  learner,  and  consequently 
depresses  all  healthy  mental  action.  Judging  from  the  results  within 
our  knowledge,  by  far  the  greatest  part  of  all  school  work  consists 
in  a  useless  pilgrimage  through  a  barren  desert  of  empty  words — a 
fruitless  Sahara. 

John  Ruskiu,  in  Fors  Clavigera,  translates  a  passage 
from  a  Greek  writer  for  the  purpose  of  reviving  a  Persian 
idea  of  education  which  is  not  without  interest  and  mean- 
ing to  our  generation.  He  refers  to  the  training  of  a 
prince,  some  three  hundred  years  before  Christ  was  wor- 
shiped by  the  Magi,  and  presents  the  following  account : 

When  the  boy  is  seven  years  old,  he  has  to  go  and  learn  all 
about  horses,  and  is  taught  by  the  masters  of  horsemanship,  and 
begins  to  go  against  wild  beasts  ;  and  when  he  is  fourteen  years  old, 
they  give  him  the  masters  whom  they  call  the  '  Kingly  Child- 
Guiders' ;  and  these  are  four,  chosen  the  best  out  of  all  the  Persians 
who  are  then  in  the  prime  of  life,  to-wit:  the  most  wise  man  they 
can  find,  and  the  most  just,  and  the  most  temperate,  and  the  most 
brave  ;  of  whom  the  first,  the  wisest,  teaches  the  prince  the  magic 
of  Zoroaster  ;  and  that  magic  is  the  service  of  the  Gods ;  also,  he 
teaches  him  the  duties  that  belong  to  a  king.  Then  the  second,  the 
justest,  teaches  him  to  speak  truth  all  his  life  through.  Then  the 
third,  the  most  temperate,  teaches  him  not  to  be  conquered  by  even 
so  much  as  a  single  one  of  the  pleasures,  that  he  may  be  exercised  in 
freedom,  and  verily  a  king,  master  of  all  things  within  himself,  not 
slave  to  them.  And  the  fourth,  the  bravest,  teaches  him  to  be 
dreadlcss  of  all  things,  as  knowing  that  whenever  he  fears,  he  is  a 
slave. 

To  the  reader  of  these  lines  it  must  be  evident  that 
some  of  the  ancients,  at  least,  anticipated  the  ideal  which 
is  growing  conspicuously  prominent  to-day.  In  this  pass- 
age we  have  a  striking  picture,  the  principal  feature  of 
which  is  development.  At  first,  the  lad's  physical  powers 
are  called  forth,  and  his  hand,  eye  and  foot  are  carefully 
trained  to  do  his  bidding.  He  is  not,  therefore,  sent  into 
the  world  unable  to  look  after  himself,  undisciplined, 
unskilled.  His  religious  nature  is  then  cultivated,  love, 


A    PERSIAN   MODEL. 

faith,  and  reverence  being  quickened  and  evolved.  Fol- 
lowing this,  one  teacher  devotes  himself  to  the  cause  of 
truth — so  important  was  it  regaided — and  the  royal  pupil 
is  influenced  to  render  it  sincere  homage,  and  the  latent 
respect  for  its  claims,  which  lies  enwrapped  in  the  soul  is 
evoked  and  strengthened.  Then  comes  self-government, 
freedom  from  vice,  implying  that  to  the  surface  have 
been  summoned  the  grandest  and  noblest  qualities  of  our 
common  nature.  Of  course  the  process  of  unfolding  and 
expanding  here  described,  demanded  the  communica- 
tion of  much  "useful  knowledge;"  but  it  is  to  be  ob- 
served, and  this  is  the  special  point  that  concerns  us, 
that  the  importation  of  knowledge  was  not  the  end  kept 
steadily  in  view,  but  was  merely  one  of  the  instruments 
— example  and  experiment  being  doubtless  others — for  its 
achievement.  We  propose  this  model  to  the  thoughtful 
consideration  of  all  those  who  are  interested  in  the  train- 
ing of  youth.  Separate  from  it  all  that  is  incidental  and 
local,  and  retain  the  essential  spirit,  and  we  may  go  far- 
ther without  finding  a  better  illustration  of  what  we  should 
strive  to  realize  in  our  age,  and  toward  which  we  believe 
some  of  our  more  enlightened  instructors  and  statesmen 
are  surely,  though  perhaps  slowly,  approaching. 

But  before  any  such  goal  as  this  can  be  reached,  many 
things  now  tolerated  must  be  entirely  abolished,  and 
reforms  somewhat  radical  in  character  must  be  inaugu- 
rated. And  one  of  the  first  changes  needed  Mr.  Parton 
indicated  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  several  years  ago.  When 
visiting  Chicago  he  was  impressed  with  the  quality  of  the 
work  done  in  its  public  schools;  but  when  writing  about 
them  he  did  not  hesitate  to  describe  them  as  intellectual 
hot-houses  where  the  mind  was  unduly  forced,  and  that 
too  at  the  cost  of  physical  health.  Prof.  Mathews  tells  us 
of  a  New  York  paper  in  which  he  read  "of  a  little  girl 


430  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

whose  parents  boast  that  she  is  so  absorbed  in  her  school 
lessons  that  she  says  them  over  nightly  in  her  sleep." 
Poor  child!  how  we  pity  her;  and  stupid  father  and  mother, 
how  we  pity  you.  The  grave  is  not  far  off,  if  it  has  not 
already  opened  to  receive  your  treasure.  The  author  we 
have  just  quoted  also  relates  what  an  English  editor  ob- 
served of  the  task  assigned  a  mere  child: 

Besides  lessons  in  orthography,  etymology  and  syntax,  she  had 
others  to  learn  in  astronomy,  belles  lettres,  music,  drawing  and  politi- 
cal economy,  with  side  issues,  consisting  of  card  board,  needle  work 
and  Berlin  wool,  pictures  of  lemon  colored  sheep,  kept  from  indigo 
lions  by  a  saffron  colored  shepherd, — and  the  whole  to  be  done  up 
and  finished  in  three  hours. 

The  result  of  such  cramming  can  easily  be  surmised. 
Nothing  is  acquired  thoroughly.  The  mental  faculties 
are  gorged,  and  their  tone  and  fiber  suffer  from  repletion. 
Of  the  10,000,000  young  persons  anriually  receiving  in- 
struction in  America,  how  few  there  are  who  seern  to  be 
really  profited  by  their  studies.  Their  brain  is  frequently 
injured,  and  their  health  undermined.  John  Locke  held 
a  sound  body  to  be  of  equal  importance  with  a  sound 
mind ;  and  indeed  the  former  can  hardly  exist  without  the 
latter.  Professor  Hall,  in  North  American  Review,  says 
that  he  asked  the  masters  of  six  city  grammar  schools, 
' '  How  many  of  your  boys  have  graduated  sound  in  health 
to  their  teeth  ?"  And  "their  replies  have  all  ranged  be- 
tween three  and  fifteen  per  cent."  In  these  answers  he 
remarks:  "I  doubt,  from  the  sallow  complexion,  the 
languor,  the  anxious,  nervous,  worrying  tone  so  generally 
seen  in  the  faces  of  our  brain-worked  girls,  in  high  and 
normal  schools,  if  the  case  is  much  better  there."  "Well, 
if  only  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  multitudes  who  pass  through 
our  public  schools  are  physically  whole,  something  must 
be  wrong.  Nor  is  this  suspicion  removed  when  we  cast 
our  eyes  on  college  graduates,  many  of  whom  leave  the 


FAILURES   OF    EDUOATON.  431 

halls  of  learning,  weak,  fretful,  dyspeptic  and  with  such 
loss  of  vigor  that  comparatively  few  among  them  ever  at- 
tain to  eminence  in  their  chosen  professions.  Evidently  our 
educational  methods  are  not  what  they  should  be.  While 
pure  air,  perfect  ventilation,  out-door  exercise  and  ample 
time  to  return  home  between  sessions  for  an  honest  meal, 
instead  of  the  indigestible  lunches  which  are  usually  hasti- 
ly swallowed,  are  imperatively  requisite ;  fewer  hours  for 
mental  application,  a  wiser  adjustment  of  studies  to  the 
capacity  of  the  student  and  to  the  end  sought  by  the 
teacher,  are  equally  important. 

But,  beyond  all  this,  some  changes  are  evidently  needed 
to  redeem  our  schools,  and  our  higher  institutions  of 
learning,  from  the  suspicion  that  they  do  not  succeed  as 
they  should  in  preparing  their  pupils  for  the  active  duties 
of  life. 

Fronde,  in  one  of  his  Shorter  Studies,  notes  the  help- 
.essness  of  many  college  graduates.  He  declares  that  they 
are  prepared  for  the  trade  of  a  gentleman,  and  for  no 
other  trade ;  and  he  points  out,  what  we  must  have  ob- 
served in  this  country  as  well,  the  desire  among  young 
men  for  clerkships  and  office  duties.  This  he  looks  on  as 
an  unpromising  sign.  Moreover,  he  quotes  a  cry  that 
comes  from  Australia,  which  confirms  his  own  opinion 
concerning  the  inability  of  not  a  few  college-bred  men  to 
support  themselves  :  "  Send  us,"  the  people  of  the  antip- 
odes exclaim,  "  no  more  of  what  you  call  educated  men, 
send  us  smiths,  masons,  carpenters,  day  laborers."  These 
will  thrive,  "but  "the  other  is  a  log  on  our  hands;  he 
loafs  in  uselessness  till  his  means  are  spent,  he  then  turns 
billiard-marker,  enlists  as  a  soldier  or  starves."  Miss  Flor- 
ence Nightingale  is  equally  uncomplimentary  when  she 
observes  that  instruction  in  the  three  R's,  unaccompanied 
as  it  now  generally  is  by  industrial  training,  is  apt  to  lead 
to  the  fourth  R,  "rascaldom."  In  the  same  direction 


432  STUDIES   I3T  SOCIAL   LIFE. 

tends  a  symposium  on  " Educational  Needs"  published 
two  or  three  years  ago  in  the  North  American  Review, 
and  from  which  may  be  gathered  suggestions  as  to  the 
cause  and  cure  of  the  evil  under  consideration.  Professor 
Hall  lays  stress  on  the  importance  of  physical  training, 
and  quotes  Frobel's  dictum.  "  The  child  is  a  plant  and 
should  live  out  of  doors."  He  insists  likewise  on  a  deeper 
insight  into  children's  psychic  growth  and  activity,  there- 
by following  the  plan  both  of  Frobel  and  Pestalozzi.  Also, 
he  agrees  with  Dr.  Putnam  Jacobi  that  ethical  training,  as 
it  is  properly  called  in  these  brief  papers,  is  imperatively  de- 
manded. Professor  Felix  Adler  charges  that  memory  is 
cultivated  at  the  expense  of  the  understanding,  that  whole- 
sale teaching  is  an  evil,  and  argues  that  mental  overtaxing 
should  be  avoided. 

Evidently,  if  our  boys  and  girls  are  to  be  rendered 
efficient,  self-reliant  and  self-supporting  men  and  women, 
they  must  be  taught  in  such  a  way  as  to  strengthen  and 
invigorate  the  intellectual  and  physical  nature,  and  the 
ethical  must  not  be  neglected.  A  youth  with  a  thoroughly 
developed  brain,  sustained  by  a  thoroughly  sound  body, 
and  guided  by  a  thoroughly  enlightened  conscience,  will 
usually  be  wise  enough  to  plan  for  his  own  maintenance, 
will  be  vigorous  enough  to  execute,  will  be  too  independent 
to  rely  on  others,  and  too  correct  in  his  principles  to  dream 
of  subsistence  without  honest  toil.  We  are  satisfied  that 
confusion  of  ideas,  the  failure  to  see  things  distinctly, 
resulting  from  the  incoming  of  fog-banks  of  knowledge, 
combined  with  the  effeminacy  increased  by  sedentary 
habits,  and  the  moral  laxity  which  follows  exclusive  devo- 
tion to  intellectual  pursuits,  constitute  the  roots  from 
whence  spring  the  tree,  of  whose  comparative  leaflessness 
and  fruitlessness  we  have  just  reason  to  complain.  Let 
the  husbandry  be  changed  according  to  the  suggestions 
made  by  the  authors  of  the  "  Symposium,"  and  there  can 


MANUAL   SCHOOLS.  433 

be  but  little  doubt  that  the  tree  will  speedily  become  more 
attractive,  and  will  yield  abundantly.  This,  however,  is 
not  all  that  is  demanded.  There  must  be  some  grafting 
done.  The  practical  must  be  systematically  added  to  the 
theoretical  in  education ;  the  concrete  must  find  a  place 
with  the  abstract ;  and  the  industrial  and  technical  be 
joined  to  the  scholarly  and  speculative. 

Leibnitz,  who  seems  to  have  foreseen  the  present  emer- 
gency, regarded  the  teaching  of  arts  and  trades  in  public 
schools  as  of  immense  utility  to  the  State.  "  Once,"  says 
Froude,  '  '•  the  ten  commandments  and  a  handicraft  made 
a  good  and  wholesome  equipment  to  commence  life  with." 
But  a  handicraft  is  a  difficult  thing  to  learn  in  America, 
particularly  by  the  children  of  Americans.  The  old  ap- 
prentice system  is  pretty  much  gone,  and  what  remains  of 
it  is  mainly  in  the  hands  of  foreigners,  who  seem  intent  on 
preventing  the  multiplication  of  skilled  artisans.  If  then 
mechanic  arts  are  to  be  taught  in  this  land,  and  are  to 
be  rendered  available  to  the  thousands  who  must  subsist 
by  them  or  starve  ;  and  if  the  unfair  restrictions  of  Trades- 
Unions,  composed  largely  of  alien-born  workmen,  are  to 
be  nullified  and  rendered  inoperative,  the  nation  must 
have  recourse  to  the  remedy  suggested  by  Leibnitz.  Rous- 
seau, likewise  took  up  this  thought,  and  recommended 
that  every  child  should  learn  a  trade ;  and  in  the  same 
direction  run  the  sentiments  expressed  by  Goethe  to  Ecker- 
mann  :  "Education  makes  of  us  bags  filled  with  words, 
figures  and  facts."  *  *  *  "  If  we  could  only  have  less 
philosophy  and  more  power  of  action,  less  theory  and  more 
practice,  we  might  obtain  a  good  share  of  redemption." 
Long  before  him,  Aristotle  taught  that  the  games  of 
childhood  should  have  a  bearing  on  the  work  of  after  years; 
Milton  also  advocated  the  imparting  of  knowledge  more 
useful  than  Latin  and  Greek  ;  and  another  old  writer  de- 
clared "that  bookish  learning  is  a  poor  stock  to  go  upon." 
28 


434  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

It  was  the  discernment  of  the  principle  underlying  these 
statements  that  led  Frobel  to  desire  and  inaugurate  the 
"Kindergarten,"  which  calls  into  exercise  intelligence 
and  will,  and  which,  while  it  supplies  information  of  great 
utility,  trains  eye,  ear  and  hand  to  apply  what  has  been 
acquired.  "The  Kindergarten"  is  the  primary  depart- 
ment of  "the  Manual  Training  School,"  and  when  both 
shall  be  in  successful  operation  all  over  the  land  we  shall 
have  the  actual  accomplishment  of  what  the  wise  men, 
whose  words  we  have  quoted,  were  more  or  less  distinctly 
hinting  at,  and  we  shall  have  secured  a  way  of  deliverance 
from  an  educational  method  that  fails  in  a  very  vital 
sense  to  educate.  The  first  of  tthese  institutions  has  won 
its  way  in  public  favor  very  rapidly,  and  may  now  be  re- 
garded as  a  settled  fact ;  and  the  second  is  growing  in 
popular  esteem,  and  the  day  seems  not  far  distant  when  a 
workshop  will  be  permanently  attached  to  every  grammar 
school.  France  has  several  shops  of  this  kind;  and  par- 
ticularly in  Bavaria  does  the  government  charge  itself 
with  the  creation  and  support  of  such  seminaries  of  in- 
dustry. In  our  own  country  they  are  multiplying.  They 
are  already  to  be  found,  though  not  all  as  yet  on  an  iden- 
tical basis  of  support,  some  being  maintained  by  the 
State,  others  by  corporations,  and  yet  others  by  individ- 
uals, in  Philadelphia,  Toledo,  Baltimore,  Chicago,  and  St. 
Louis;  and  either  completely  or  in  part,  the  system  has 
been  adopted  and  applied  in  Purdue  University,  Indiana, 
in  the  high  school,  Omaha,  in  Tulane  University,  New 
Orleans,  in  the  universities  of  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin, 
and  in  the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of  Ala- 
bama. But  those  of  our  readers  who  desire  to  know  more 
of  this  movement  and  of  its  progress,  we  advise  to  consult 
a  volume  by  Mr.  Charles  H.  Ham,  issued  by  the  Harpers. 
He  has  made  a  special  study  of  the  subject,  and  his  chap- 
ters bristle  with  instructive  facts  and  figures,  and  abound 


ETHICAL   EDUCATION1.  435 

in  judicious  and  valuable  reflections.  On  one  point,  how- 
ever, there  is  really  little  need  for  testimony.  We  refer  to 
the  practical  and  material  benefits  of  the  system.  •  Any 
one  can  see  at  a  glance  that  it  must  conduce  to  physical 
development;  and  by  promoting  technical  skill  and  taste 
for  manual  toil,  will  not  only  serve  the  cause  of  industry, 
but  will  render  thousands  of  persons  independent  of  out- 
side assistance. 

Perhaps  this  is  as  much  as  we  ought  to  say  in  a  general 
discussion,  such  as  our  present  paper  purports  to  be,  on 
manual  training.  We  pass,  therefore,  to  another  and  to 
an  equally  important  topic,  namely,  ethical  culture.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  nearly  every  writer  we  have 
quoted  has  called  attention  to  its  need  and  has  emphasized 
its  value.  Charles  Sumner,  in  one  of  his  terrific  appeals, 
compares  a  republic  without  education  "to  a  human  being 
without  a  soul,  living  and  moving  blindly  with  no  just 
sense  of  the  present  or  the  future."  But  a  human  being 
without  morals  is  a  monstrosity,  and  a  republic  in  which 
they  are  dead  is  a  scourge.  Kant  declares  that  if  in  free 
countries  men  are  not  subject  to  discipline  they  incline  to 
lawlessness  which  is  barbarity.  In  such  circumstances 
the  peril  is  imminent.  If  in  kingly  governments  abuses 
and  corruptions  creep  in,  the  monarch  or  his  ministers 
can  be  impeached  ;  but,  as  it  has  been  asked  by  another, 
who  shall  impeach  the  people  when  they  are  destitute  of 
honor?  A  Charles  I.  or  a  Louis  XVI.  can  lose  his  head,  but 
what  executioner  can  decapitate  a  nation?  Clean  gone 
from  rectitude,  abandoned  to  injustice  and  to  vicious 
courses,  it  is  swiftly  tending  toward  destruction.  To  avert 
such  a  calamity  a  beginning  must  be  made  with  the 
children,  and  in  every  school,  from  the  lowest  to  the  high- 
est they  must  be  trained  in  correct  principles  of  conduct. 
Statesmen  who  deserve  the  name  and  patriots  who  are  not 
counterfeits  will  feel  an  abiding  interest  in  the  art  of 


436  STUDIES   IK   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

right-living,  and  will  realize  the  importance  of  imparting 
its  first  lessons  to  the  young.  In  our  judgment,  from  the 
time  .a  child  enters  the  primary  school,  and  throughout 
the  entire  course  of  after-instruction,  his  conscience  should 
be  enlightened  and  developed,  and  the  law  of  duty  in  its 
application  to  every  domain  and  relation  of  life  should  be 
gradually  unfolded  and  illustrated. 

Such  a  plan  is  not  pursued  at  present.  It  is  well- 
known  that  in  our  efforts  to  secularize  education  we  have 
pretty  much  lost  sight  of  ethics.  In  thrusting  out  religion 
we  have  likewise  exiled  virtue.  Anxious  to  save  our 
children  from  the  sectarianism  of  the  former,  we  have 
robbed  them  of  the  safeguards  of  the  latter.  Our  school 
property  has  cost  us  $200,000,000,  and  we  pay  over  $100,- 
000,000  for  teachers,  and  yet  there  is  no  perceptible 
diminution  in  crime  or  suffering ;  and  if  we  may  believe 
Professor  Julius  H.  Seelye  in  the  Forum  (July  1886)  they 
are  both  rather  on  the  increase.  It  would  seem  that  mere 
enlightenment  is  no  safeguard  against  vice  and  crime. 
We  know  more  than  our  fathers,  but  we  do  not  act  in  a 
worthier  manner.  As  Wordsworth  complains,  moral  prog- 
ress has  not  kept  pace  with  the  advance  of  intelligence. 
This  may  be  in  part  accounted  for  by  the  little  attention 
given  to  the  subject  in  our  institutions  of  learning.  From 
the  humblest  to  the  proudest  obligation  is  not  thoroughly 
discussed,  its  source  adequately  explained,  or  its  bearings 
made  plain  and  simple.  Ethical  science  we  admit  forms  a 
study  in  our  colleges,  but  there  is  not  much  time  given  to 
it;  neither  can  it  be  said  jfeo  rank  in  importance  with  the 
classics  or  with  mathematics.  A  greater  portion  of  a  four- 
year  course  is  devoted  to  the  latter,  while  only  some  eight 
or  ten  weeks  are  given  to  the  former.  And  what  is  worse, 
while  professors  and  teachers  are  reserving  the  little  they 
have  to  say  on  the  individual  government  of  life  until  the 
senior  term,  the  boys  are  working  out  their  own  Decalogue, 


THE   CISTE11CIAXS.  437 

and  forming  notions  of  what  is  honorable  and  upright, 
which  would  hardly  receive  the  approval  of  Moses  or  of 
any  competent  casuist.  It  is  not  that  Wayland's  Moral 
Science,  or  that  of  any  other  qualified  writer,  is  defective 
in  its  principles  or  misleading  in  their  application  ;  but 
rather  that  the  science  is  pursued  superficially,  instead 
of  being  inwrought  from  the  beginning  of  education  in 
the  habit  of  acting  as  numbers  are  in  the  habit  of  think- 
ing. A  lad  is  daily  trained  until  he  reaches  manhood's 
estate  in  figures  so  that  to  calculate  correctly  becomes  easy 
and  natural ;  but  he  is  not  so  trained  in  the  more  intri- 
cate problems  of  right  and  wrong ;  and  indeed  is  gen- 
erally left  to  his  own  crude  ideas  or  his  own  passionate 
instincts,  and  when  these  have  in  some  degree  warped 
his  character,  the  dignified  professor  takes  him  in  hand 
and  tries  to  force  upon  him  views  that  are  to  him  anti- 
quated, ascetic  and  visionary. 

Thackeray,  in  his  fortunes  and  misfortunes  of  Penden- 
nis,  is  justified  in  the  sketch  he  gives  of  school  dangers 
among  the  Cistercians  ;  and  his  reflections  thereon  are 
worthy  the  consideration  of  parents  in  the  new  world  as  in 
the  old.  This  is  the  passage  : 

There  were  many  of  the  upper  boys,  *  *  *  who  assumed  all 
the  privileges  of  men  long  before  they  quitted  the  seminary.  Many 
of  them,  for  example,  smoked  cigars — and  some  had  already  begun 
the  practice  of  inebriation.  One  had  fought  a  duel  with  an  ensign  in 
a  marching  regiment  in  consequence  of  a  row  at  the  theater — another 
actually  kept  a  buggy  and  horse  at  a  livery  stable  in  Covent  Garden, 
and  might  be  seen  driving  any  Sunday  in  Hyde  Park  with  a  groom 
with  squared  arms  and  armorial  buttons  by  his  side.  Many  of  the 
seniors  were  in  love,  and  showed  each  other  in  confidence  poems 
addressed  to,  or  letters  and  locks  of  hair  received  from  young  ladies — 
but  Pen,  a  modest  and  timid  youth,  rather  envied  these  than  imitated 
them  as  yet.  He  had  not  got  beyond  the  theory  as  yet — the  practice 
of  life  was  all  to  come.  And  by  the  way,  ye  tender  mothers,  and 
sober  fathers  of  Christian  families,  a  prodigious  thing  that  theory  of 
life  is  as  orally  learned  at  a  great  public  school.  Why,  if  you  could 


438  STUDIES   IN    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

hear  those  boys  of  fourteen  who  blush  before  mothers,  sneak  off  in 
silence  in  the  presence  of  their  daughters,  talking  among  each  other — 
it  would  be  the  woman's  turn  to  blush  then.  Before  he  was  twelve 
years  old  little  Pen  had  heard  talk  enough  to  make  him  quite  awfully 
wise  upon  certain  points — and  so,  Madam,  has  your  little  rosy-cheeked 
son,  who  is  coming  home  from  school  for  the  ensuing  holidays.  I 
don't  say  that  the  boy  is  lost,  or  that  the  innocence  has  left  him 
which  he  had  from  "  Heaven,  which  is  our  home,"  but  that  the 
shades  of  the  prison's  house  aie  closing  very  fast  over  him,  and  that 
we  are  helping  as  much  as  possible  to  corrupt  him. 

This  is  not  an  unfaithful  picture  of  school-life  in  our 
own  times,  especially  in  several  of  our  higher  institutions  of 
learning.  We  were  informed  by  an  eminent  divine  of 
Cambridge,  that  he  had  s,een  young  men  helpless  from 
strong  drink  lying  on  the  college  green.  From  what  we 
have  observed  of  students  habits  we  can  readily  believe  the 
statement.  A  lady  of  some  prominence  in  society  gave  as 
the  chief  reason  for  withdrawing  her  son  from  a  pronounced 
evangelical  university,  that  the  tutor,  to  whose  tender 
mercies  the  youth  had  been  consigned,  took  advantage  of 
his  position  to  whisper  various  objections  to  Christianity. 
She  said  with  some  warmth  that  she  certainly  did  not  send 
her  boy  to  a  school  founded  by  religious  men,  and  pro- 
fessedly attached  to  a  great  religious  denomination,  to  have 
his  faith  undermined,  and  the  bulwarks  of  virtue  assailed. 
Had  such  been  her  purpose  she  could  have  effected  it  at 
less  expense  nearer  home.  She  is  not  the  only  one  who 
has  noticed  the  insiduous  attempts  of  some  teachers  to 
alienate  the  mind  of  their  pupils  from  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
A  young  man  wrote  his  father,  that  it  would  be  next  to 
impossible  for  a  student  to  be  converted  in  his  university, 
even  if  he  desired  that  blessing.  He  meant  that  the 
atmosphere  of  the  place  was  charged  through  and  through 
with  rationalism;  and  that  cheap  displays  of  intellectuality 
on  the  part  of  seniors  and  some  of  the  professors  rendered  it 
difficult  for  spiritual  aspirations  to  find  scope  and  inspi- 


OUR   STUDENTS.  439 

ration.  Where  this  indifference  exists  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  to  the  religious  state  of  those  entrusted  to  their 
care — and  we  rejoice  to  believe  that  it  is  not  general — there 
is  apt  to  grow  in  the  mind  of  their  wards  the  impression 
that  as  the  faith  of  their  sires  is  antiquated  and  irrational 
— learned  doctors  of  laws  and  philosophy  being  judges — so 
also  must  be  the  morality  whose  authority  is  mainly  derived 
from  its  sanctions.  At  any  rate  this  seems  to  be  the  prac- 
tical conclusion  of  many  collegians  regarding  ethics,  what- 
ever may  be  their  private  notions  concerning  religion. 
Lads  often  take  their  first  lessons  in  smoking,  drinking, 
and  something  worse,  in  the  town  or  city  where  dwells  their 
Alma  Mater.  Now,  as  in  the  days  of  Thackeray's  Cister- 
cians, vices  are  changed  to  virtues  in  the  moral  alembic  of 
candidates  for  academical  honors.  To  evade  their  tasks, 
to  bamboozle  professors,  to  impose  on  good-natured  parents, 
to  play  unmanly  pranks,  and  to  waste  their  time  on  non- 
sensical secret  societies,  are  among  the  chief  engagements 
of  not  a  few  undergraduates.  Many  of  them,  likewise, 
appear  to  exalt  athletic  sports  out  of  all  proportion  to 
their  importance  above  mental  discipline  and  culture. 
They  know  more  of  boats  than  they  do  of  Greek;  they  row 
better  than  they  can  write;  they  achieve  more  with  their 
feet  than  they  do  with  their  brains;  they  can  use  the  box- 
ing gloves  with  more  effect  than  the  defenses  of  Logic;  and 
they  can  calculate  with  greater  nicety  the  probabilities  of 
successs  in  games  of  foot  or  baseball  than  they  can  the 
simplest  problems  in  Algebra.  Physical  development  we 
concede  is  of  great  value,  and  ought  not  to  be  neglected; 
but  when  it  is  made  an  excuse  for  the  systematic  avoidance 
of  study,  and  when  it  is  so  perverted  as  to  become  an  encour- 
agement to  gambling  and  to  the  manners  of  the  pot-house, 
it  is  at  once  a  snare  and  a  curse.  Dr.  McCosh,  of  Prince- 
ton, has  expressed  himself  forcibly  on  this  point,  and  has 
Uttered  a  timely  warning;  and  no  one,  surely  can  speak 


440  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

with  more  authority  and  with  less  prejudice  on  a  subject 
of  this  kind  than  he,  who  for  years  has  devoted  himself  to 
the  education  of  youth.  But  if  confirmation  of  what  we 
have  stated  is  required,  and  if  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Mc- 
Cosh  is  regarded  with  suspicion,  we  have  it  in  the  follow- 
ing brief  extract  from  the  Hartford  Courant,  which  sets 
forth  the  evil  of  which  we  complain  in  no  doubtful  terms. 

It  is  current  rumor  that  a  very  large  pile  of  money  was  "dropped" 
on  the  Yale-Harvard  boat  race.  The  Boston  Herald  reckons  that  de- 
votion to  the  crimson  cost  the  Harvard  boys  about  $200,000.  The 
ball  match,  it  may  be  added,  was  not  without  its  stakes,  too.  In  each 
case  Harvard  was  the  favorite  and  Yale  the  winner.  There  is  some- 
thing highly  disgraceful  about  this  whole  betting  contingent  of  the 
college  contests.  The  example  is  set,  if  the  whole  betting  is  not  done, 
in  both  colleges  by  those  rich  and  pernicious  idlers,  whose  fathers 
send  them  to  college  for  the  sake  of  saying  they  have  been  there,  and 
whose  great  wealth  inclines  the  managers,  in  these  money-serving 
days,  to  help  them  along  in  the  hope  of  endowments  from  the  parents. 
They  are  an  injury  to  whatever  college  they  attend.  With  their  reck- 
less expenditure,  their  profligate  habits,  their  high  scale  of  living, 
their  idleness  and  their  general  futility ;  they  do  far  more  harm  than 
their  parents  can  undo  with  the  uncertain  charity  of  their  last  wills 
and  testaments.  They  are  the  curse  of  the  large  colleges  today.  The 
only  way  to  look  at  this  boating  and  base  ball  diversion  is  as  a  sport — 
a  side  issue  in  a  course  of  education  which  does  not  neglect  bodily 
training.  If  the  boys  can  keep  up  their  studies  and  succeed  in  their 
sports,  it  is  all  very  well;  but  it  is  a  question  whether  they  do  not  give 
too  much  time  to  the  latter  already.  Certainly,  any  further  emanci- 
pation from  study  for  the  sake  of  play  in  any  of  them  is  a  mistake. 
Considering  the  abominable  extent  to  which  the  betting  and  gambling 
have  gone,  it  would  be  better  today  to  cut  off  all  the  sport  than  to  in- 
crease its  opportunity. 

In  the  opinions  expressed  by  the  editor  we  concur ; 
and  we  do  not  think  that  anything  need  be  added  to  show 
that  there  is  serious  lack  of  ethical  training  in  some  of  our 
most  notable  seats  of  learning.  The  reference  in  this 
article  to  prodigal  idlers  has  been  echoed  by  Mr.  Salton- 
stall  in  his  depreciation  of  the  growing  extravagance  of 


THE    KEW    RICH.  441 

Harvard;  and  has  been  met  by  President  Elliot  with  the 
explanation:  "that  the  students  who  are  extravagant  are 
the  sons  of  rich  people  who  have  no  experience  of  wealth." 
This  may  be  the  case — though  we  are  not  quite  convinced 
that  it  is — but  we  fail  to  see  how  it  mends  matters.  "  The 
new  rich"  may  be  to  blame;  .but,  at  the  same  time,  is  it 
not  true  that  university  overseers  are  also  to  blame  for  not 
insisting  that  the  "new  rich"  keep  their  shoddy  displays 
and  their  riotous  conduct  at  home,  and  not  render  them 
a  source  of  temptation  to  those  who  in  their  silly  desire  to 
imitate  them,  disappoint  their  self-sacrificing  parents  and 
blight  their  own  future.  If  the  scions  of  our  recent  pluto- 
crats cannot  be  kept  within  the  bounds  of  correct  and 
modest  living  let  them  go  to  the  bad  elsewhere,  and  not  in 
colleges;  for  no  "endowments"  from  their  parents  can 
compensate  for  the  ruin  they  bring  to  poor  and  struggling 
students.  Unless  a  change  is  wrought  in  this  regard  very 
speedily,  and  unless  moral  training  comes  to  be  dealt  with 
more  earnestly  and  thoroughly  than  at  present,  it  will  indeed 
be  a  hazardous  experiment  to  let  a  boy  go  to  a  great  school. 
The  venture  even  now  is  a  grave  one,  and  we  have  often 
thought  warrants  the  scathing  saying  of  Dr.  Todd  of  New 
Haven,  that  if  he  had  his  way  there  should  only  be  two 
colleges  in  the  United  States:  one  in  the  East  and  the 
other  in  the  West;  and  the  eastern  one  he  would  locate  in 
Nova  Scotia,  and  the  western  in  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  discipline  of  our  schools  is 
superior  to  what  it  was  in  former  times.  Unquestionably 
there  has  been  improvement  in  some  directions.  This  we 
neither  dispute  nor  deny.  What  we  have  written  has  not 
been  penned  for  the  sake  of  drawing  comparisons  or  con- 
trasts between  the  past  and  the  present;  but  rather  that 
we  may  perceive  an  existing  evil  which  cries  out  for  im- 
mediate remedy.  So  portentous  and  threatening  is  this 
evil  that  in  the  North  American  Review  two  or  three  years 


443  STUDIES    IX   SOCIAL    LIFE. 

ago  the  question  was  seriously  discussed,  with  the  weight 
of  the  argument  on  the  negative  side, whether  or  not  there 
would  be  any  morality  in  the  future  ?  Now  such  inquiries 
as  these  are  exceedingly  significant,  and,  in  a  word,  are 
symptomatic  of  approaching  confusion  and  convulsion  in 
the  domain  of  right  and  wrong.  Is  this  threatened  dis- 
aster to  be  averted  ?  Do  the  interests  of  Society  demand 
that  it  should  be  prevented?  If  so,  then  it  is  more  impor- 
tant that  we  look  things  squarely  in  the  face,  than  it  is  to 
spend  our  strength  in  showing  that  our  colleges  on  the 
whole  are  better  managed  and  are  less  frequently  shocked 
by  scandalous  proceedings  on  the  part  of  students  than 
they  were  in  •''  the  days  of  yore."  Let  us  admit  all  that 
can  be  claimed  in  their  favor;  nevertheless,  it  must  be 
conceded,  if  reforms  have  taken  place,  that  more  are 
needed,  and  cannot  safely  be  delayed.  To  save  the  age 
from  immorality  childhood  and  youth  must  be  carefully 
trained  in  the  ways  of  righteousness.  They  are  our  hope. 
Let  us  see  to  it  that  they  do  not  become  our  despair;  and 
our  despair  they  will  be  if  they  are  permitted  to  grow  up 
with  loose  ideas  regarding  their  obigation  to  God  and  man. 
Our  first  duty  is  to  see  that  ethical  science  in  some  form 
becomes  part  of  even  elementary  education.  The  Bible 
has  been  removed  from  many  of  our  public  schools,  and 
probably  will  never  be  restored.  We  cannot  but  regret 
that  the  biography  of  Jesus  should  be  prohibited,  and  that 
multitudes  of  children  should  be  deprived  of  the  only  op- 
portunity they  have  of  sitting  as  learners  at  His  blessed 
feet.  Would  it  were  possible  to  bring  back  that  sacred 
Presence;  would  that  Eomanists  and  Protestants  would 
unite  in  placing  before  the  children  a  portraiture  of  Him 
who  has  no  sympathy  with  their  sectarianism,  and  who 
longs,  as  of  old,  to  lay  His  hands,  rich  with  benedictions, 
on  the  heads  of  our  little  ones.  But  if  this  is  impossible  ; 
if  we  think  more  of  a  so-called  orthodox  form  than  of  the 


A   MORAL   CODE.  443 

real  Christ;  and  if  we  believe  that  knowledge  of  Him 
apart  from  some  sacerdotal  ceremony  or  churchly  rite 
may  prove  pernicious — God  forgive  our  stupidity  border- 
ing on  impiousness — can  we  not,  at  least,  prepare  a  system 
of  morals  sufficient  for  the  practical  purposes  of  education, 
and  to  which  all  shades  of  religious  opinion  can  heartily 
subscribe?  We  believe  this  is  possible,  and  certainly  this 
is  needed.  A  commission  composed  of  learned  men,  Jews, 
Catholics,  Protestants  and  Theists,  undoubtedly  could 
agree,  not  only  on  what  ought  to  be  the  rule  of  conduct, 
but  on  its  true  source  and  basis  as  well.  On  these  subjects 
there  is  really  no  practical  difference  of  opinion  among 
religious  people  of  every  name;  and  the  only  persons  who 
could  object  to  their  system  of  morals  are  those  who  deny 
the  Divine  existence,  and  who  recognize  no  other  author- 
ity than  that  of  expediency.  But  these  radical  secularists 
are  not  entitled  to  very  much  consideration  when  we  re- 
member the  gravity  of  the  interests  at  stake,  and  the  little 
their  theory  is  capable  of  doing  for  the  well-being  of  Society. 
The  endeavor  to  build  on  the  foundations  of  utilitarianism 
can  never  prove  advantageous,  as  its  principles  too  clearly 
resemble  the  shifting  and  treacherous  sands  for  the  struc- 
ture reared  thereon  to  be  either  trustworthy  or  permanent. 
To  maintain  that  the  supreme  law  of  duty  is  essentially 
selfish,  and  that  a  man  is  only  bound  to  do  the  best  he  can 
in  existing  circumstances,  as  is  upheld  by  the  advocates 
of  Godless  morality,  is  to  abandon  the  weak  to  the  strong, 
the  simple  to  the  cunning,  and  is  to  deprive  charity, 
heroism  and  self-sacrifice  of  their  significance  and  grandeur. 
Such  a  fatal  and  deadly  end  to  all  the  ennobling 
possibilities  of  humanity  is  assuredly  most  discouraging 
and  humiliating.  While  this  must  be  evident  to  every 
candid  reader,  undoubtedly  there  will  be  those  who,  as 
they  peruse  these  lines,  will  reply  that  even  if  what  we 
have  said  is  true,  in  this  free  land  we  have  no  right  to 


444  STUDIES  IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

coerce  the  conscience  of  those  who  cannot  subscribe  to 
Theism  and  its  corollaries.  Such  an  objection  as  this  we 
are  inclined  to  respect;  and  yet  is  it  not  likely  that  in  this 
instance  the  plea  may  be  without  sufficient  reason?  Let 
us  admit  that  there  is  on  this  subject  a  conflict  of  con- 
sciences, and  that  either  the  majority  or  the  minority  must 
yield.  On  the  issue  regarding  the  Bible  in  the  common 
schools  the  majority  succumbed  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and 
because  there  was  an  appearance  of  sectarianism  in  preserv- 
ing the  custom  of  reading  it  to  the  scholars ;  but  on  the 
question  of  ethical  culture,  which  is  not  primarily  a  relig- 
ious question,  and  is  one  vitally  connected  with  the  pros- 
perity and  peace  of  Society,  must  the  moral  sense  of  the 
millions  stultify  itself  to  please  that  of  the  hundreds  ? 
This  is  not  a  conflict  between  churches,  it  is  not  a  matter 
that  concerns  one  sect  as  against  the  other ;  but  is  related 
supremely  and  directly  to  the  State.  Shall  the  scruples 
of  a  few  impracticable  individuals  be  allowed  to  over- 
ride what  the  conviction  of  the  nation  regards  as  indis- 
pensable to  the  highest  and  truest  welfare  of  the  people  ? 
Experience  has  demonstrated  that  ethics,  apart  from  the 
idea  of  a  Sovereign  Lawgiver  and  Judge,  are  in  effect  merely 
recommendations  more  or  less  beautiful  and  sentimental, 
which  fail  entirely  in  producing  any  marked  beneficial  re- 
sults. Common  prudence  forbids  that  we  trust  so  visionary 
and  illusive  a  system.  If,  then,  Theism  is  vitally  related  to 
morality,  we  surely  would  not  be  justified  in  abandoning  it 
merely  because  a  little  group  of  eccentric  ladies  and  gentle- 
men profess  to  feel  aggrieved  in  their  conscience  that  Athe- 
ism is  not  to  be  tacitly  taught  in  our  schools.  We  may  be  - 
permitted  to  remind  them  that  on  distinctively  ethical 
questions  the  minority  has  frequently  had  to  submit ;  as, 
for  instance,  in  the  case  of  the  liquor  traffic.  Some  among 
us  honestly  believe  in  the  suppression  of  the  saloon ;  but, 
as  we  are  out- voted,  we  have  to  tolerate  its  existence.  If 


RELIGIOUS   FREEDOM.  445 

we  can  put  up  with  what  is  against  our  conscience,  we  may 
reasonably  expect  our  infidel  fellow-citizens  to  do  the  same. 
And  from  their  own  principles  an  argument  can  be  framed 
to  prove  that  they  are  bound  to  yield.  It  is  well  known 
that  they  insist  on  liberty.  They  contend  that  religion 
should  not  be  forced  on  the  young.  We  agree  with  them: 
only  we  also  believe  that  neither  should  irreligion  be  im- 
posed on  their  mind  and  heart.  If  they  are  to  choose,  they 
ought  to  have  both  sides  presented.  Assuming  that  this  is 
fair,  then  it  follows  as  atheistic  parents  will  not  instruct 
their  children  in  Theism,  they  ought  to  be  thankful  to 
have  it  taught  them  elsewhere,  especially  as  they  in  their 
turn  have  the  privilege  of  instilling  the  opinions  which 
they  hold  dear.  Under  these  conditions  the  child  can 
choose — not  otherwise.  But  when  parents  say  that  he 
shall  know  nothing  but  the  grounds  for  Atheism,  then 
he  will  be  as  blind  in  his  rejection  of  God,  as  some 
persons  are  in  their  acceptance  of  inspired  truth.  We  do 
not  criticise  their  antagonizing  at  home  the  morality 
taught  in  the  schools ;  but  we  hold  that  in  the  name  of  in- 
telligence they  owe  it  to  their  boys  and  girls  that  they  be 
thoroughly  enlightened  as  to  its  source  and  its  precepts. 
In  contending  for  this  we  are  not  proposing  a  wrong  to  be 
inflicted  on  their  children,  and  we  are  guarding  from  in- 
jury those  of  the  overwhelming  majority. 

But  while  ethical  training  should  begin  in  the  primary 
school,  it  should  not  end  there.  It  should  be  continued  in 
the  college,  and  should  be  conducted  practically  as  well 
as  theoretically.  By  practical  education  in  morality  we 
mean  such  oversight,  such  discipline,  and  such  surround- 
ings as  tend  to  beget  the  habits  of  righteousness.  Saloons, 
gambling  dens,  and  other  places  of  infamous  resort,  should 
be  made  impossible  in  the  vicinity  of  universities  and  other 
centers  of  learning.  The  expenditures  of  students  should 
be  regulated  in  some  degree  by  the  faculty  or  overseers ; 


446  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE, 

and  self-government  should  be  constantly  fostered  and 
promoted,  and  every  course  likely  to  enervate  and  emascu- 
late should  be  sternly  rebuked.  Games  and  sports  should 
likewise  be  snbject  to  wholesome  regulations  and  restraints, 
and  betting,  with  all  of  its  low,  vulgar  associations,  should 
be  branded  as  thoroughly  disreputable.  The  young  men 
should  be  made  to  realize  that  collegians  are  expected  to 
be  gentlemen,  and  that  ideas  of  honor  such  as  prevail  in 
sporting  circles  and  in  "fast"  fraternities  cannot  be  tol- 
erated, and  that  the  habits  and  manners  of  the  turf  and  of 
the  tavern  are  entirely  out  of  place.  While  the  observance 
of  what  is  correct  in  form  and  the  exercise  of  courtesy, 
may  be  carried  so  far  as  to  become  ridiculous,  yet  they 
cannot  with  safety  be  neglected,  as  everyone  will  admit 
who  has  observed  with  what  facility  our  bo}Ts  tend  toward 
barbarism.  Let  a  company  of  lads  be  together  for  a  short 
time,  and  it  is  remarkable  how  speedily  the  coarse  and 
uncouth  side  of  their  nature  will  develop.  To  check  this 
trend  in  all  schools,  simple,  genuine,  good-natured  polite- 
ness should  be  cultivated.  This  is  itself  a  moral  duty, 
and  good -breeding  is  in  a  very  real  sense  one  of  the  moral- 
ities ;  for  if  we  are  bound  to  contribute  to  each  other  s  com- 
fort and  happiness,  it  must  have  a  claim  upon  us,  as  its 
amenities  sweeten  life  and  lighten  many  a  burden.  It  will 
readily  be  believed  that  the  president  of  a  college  will  have 
much  to  do  in  determining  the  moral  character  of  the 
youth  entrusted  to  his  care.  His  responsibility  is  a  grave 
one.  While  it  is  usual  for  him  to  teach  Ethics — and  that 
science  ought  to  be  thoroughly  taught  in  our  great  schools 
— -he  ought  himself  to  be  so  commanding  an  illustration 
of  its  glorious  principles  as  to  awaken  a  sacred  ardor  on 
the  part  of  the  students  to  be  like  him.  Some  among  our 
college  presidents  are  taciturn,  or  are  rough,  cynical, 
morose,  or  are  indifferent  to  the  interests  of  those  who  look 
on  them  as  examples.  These  men  have  no  particular 


AN  IDEAL  PRESIDENT.  44? 

sympathy  with  the  young,  and  act  towards  them,  not  as  a 
father,  but  rather  as  a  grand  Mogul,  before  whom  inferior 
mortals  should  tremble.  We  are  persuaded  that  the  resig- 
nation of  such  leaders  would  be  a  real  boon  to  community. 
They  are  in  a  false  position,  and  should  get  out  of  it. 
Only  those  who  are  manly,  generous,  tender,  and  strong 
have  any  right  to  assume  an  exalted  station  in  the  cause  of 
education.  Professor  Timothy  Dwight,  now  president  of 
Yale,  long  before  his  elevation  gave  in  the  New  Enylander 
his  views  of  the  duties  of  the  office  which  he  now  holds. 
We  quote  a  passage  from  his  pen,  accompanied  with  the 
sincere  hope  that  he  may  be  able  to  fulfill  his  own  ideal: 

The  President  of  Yale  can  be  a  university  lecturer,  lecturing  on 
subjects  Avhich  are  of  importance  and  interest  to  the  students  of  all 
the  schools!  He  can  give  different  courses  to  a  certain  extent,  adapted 
more  particularly  to  the  wants  of  each  of  the  schools.  If  he  is  set 
apart  by  ordination  to  the  office  of  the  ministry,  as  always  has  been 
and  we  hope  always  will  be  the  case  in  this  institution,  he  can  preach 
frequently  in  the  university  chapel  or  meet  the  students  in  their  spe- 
cial or  general  meetings  of  a  religious  character.  We  know  of  no 
more  noble  work,  more  worthy  of  the  highest  powers  or  more  truly 
honorable  for  a  man  who  is  fitted  for  it  than  to  stand  thus  at  the  cen- 
ter of  a  great  and  growing  university,  with  his  heart  and  mind  open 
to  the  wants  of  its  every  department — with  his  efforts  ready  to  bear 
it  forward  in  all  parts  alike — with  the  influence  of  his  character  and 
the  impress  of  his  intellectual  power  coming  upon  every  student  who 
finds  his  way  anywhere  within  the  walls  of  the  college.  The  con- 
stantly increasing  fame  of  the  institution  would  be  his  fame.  The 
lives  of  thousands  of  students  would  bear  within  themselves  and 
would  transmit  to  a  future  generation  the  lessons  which  they  learned 
from  him.  His  office  would  be  a  higher  and  better  one  than  it  would 
be  now,  just  in  proportion  as  it  would  have  a  wider  sphere  of  action 
and  a  greater  end  to  accomplish,  and  would  be  to  its  former  self 
almost  as  the  university  is  to  the  college. 

The  special  feature  of  this  description  of  what  a  presi- 
dent should  be  which  most  impresses  us  is  that  whicli  re- 
fers to  his  personal  influence  on  each  student.  We  fully 
agree  with  the  Professor  that  a  president  should  come  in 


448  STUDIES  IK  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

direct  contact  with  every  young  man  committed  to  his  care; 
and  we  believe  that  he  should  aim  to  leave  the  imprint  of 
his  character  on  the  freshmen  where  it  will  most  likely  do 
the  most  good.  In  this  respect  Dr.  Martin  B.  Anderson, 
of  Kochester,  seems  to  be  a  worthy  example.  We  have 
heard  from  various  sources  that  he  interests  himself  in 
every  youth  that  enters  the  university,  seeks  to  advise  and 
assist  him,  and  kindles  in  the  breasts  of  all  an  earnest  de- 
sire to  be  upright,  independent  and  honorable.  Such  a 
teacher  is  himself  the  best  treatise  and  exposition  of  ethics. 
Wherever  he  goes  he  creates  an  atmosphere  of  purity. 
His  example  is  contagious.  To  be  like  him,  as  gentle,  as 
honest,  as  just,  as  kind,  becomes  the  aim  of  the  generous 
fellows  who  are  prepared  enthusiastically  to  follow  a  chief- 
tain fitted  in  every  way  to  inspire  confidence  and  respect. 

Organized  Christianity  is  chiefly  accountable  for  the 
moral  condition  of  Society ;  and  consequently  is  especially 
bound  to  see  that  it  is  educated  in  all  questions  of  right  and 
wrong,  however  colleges  or  governments  may  fail  in  this 
regard.  There  are  doubtless  some  persons  who  may  dis- 
pute this  confident  assertion,  declaring  that  the  inculca- 
tion of  religion  is  the  sole  duty  of  the  Church.  Eeligion 
is  something  more  than  morality ;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
it  is  the  highest  inspiration  to  morality.  We  admit  that  the 
Church  is  especially  and  Divinely  appointed  its  advocate 
and  teacher,  and  that  she  is  bound  to  communicate  its 
sweet  and  sacred  principles  to  humanity.  Their  presence 
in  the  soul,  with  the  corresponding  response  of  the  soul  to 
their  influence  is  an  important  part  of  education.  This 
response  many  persons  prefer  to  call  "con version, "and  we 
are  not  disposed  to  dispute  terminology  with  them.  But 
describe  it  by  whatever  name  we  please,  it  is  the  quicken- 
ing, unfolding,  and  development  of  man's  spiritual  nature ; 
and  as  such  may  without  confusion  of  thought  or  heresy 
be  defined  by  the  word  we  have  used.  Whatever  may 


THE   CHURCH   AND   MORALITY.  449 

serve  to  promote  this  work  the  Church  ought  to  .support 
and  befriend.  Ethical  science,  grounded  as  it  is  in  the 
fact  of  God's  existence  and  providence,  unquestionably  con- 
tributes to  its  advancement,  and  consequently  the  Church 
is  inexcusably  guilty  if  she  does  not  employ  all  her  power 
to  have  it  taught  everywhere, — in  the  common  schools  and 
in  the  colleges  of  the  land,  as  well  as  in  the  sanctuary. 
Whatever  she  can  do  to  secure  this  end  she  should  promptly 
and  vigorously  undertake,  and  she  should  permit  no  sec- 
tarian predilections  to  interfere  with  its  success.  But  be- 
yond all  this,  and  as  though  there  were  no  secular  institu- 
tions of  learning  anywhere,  she  should  devote  her  ener- 
gies and  resources  to  moral  culture.  Her  Sabbath  services, 
and  her  week-day  prayer  meetings,  and  her  Sunday  schools, 
are  means  now  happily  employed  in  this  holy  cause ;  and 
yet,  we  presume  few  will  dispute  the  proposition  that  these 
may  be  rendered  more  efficient  than  they  are,  and  may  be 
ably  seconded  by  new  measures.  For,  instance,  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations  are  a  modern  expedient,  and 
they  have  been  eminently  successful  in  reaching  inultitudes. 
who,  but  for  their  exertions,  would  probably  never 
clearly  have  discerned  the  eternal  difference  between 
right  and  wrong.  They  have  rescued  many  youths 
in  business  houses  and  in  colleges  from  Yice,  and  they 
have  become  a  religious  educating  force  of  no  mean  power. 
So,  likewise,  the  evangelizing  movement,  of  which  Mr. 
Moody  is  the  chief  representative,  is  in  several  particulars 
a  new  departure  from  old  methods.  Revivals  formerly 
were  conducted  in  churches,  the  present  evangelical  "mis- 
sions "  are  mainly  held  in  hippodromes,  rinks,  halls,  or 
theatres;  the  first  depended  almost  exclusively  on  preach- 
ing, the  second  very  largely  on  singing;  and  the  first  were 
marked  by  the  excitement  of  so-called  altar  exercises,  but 
the  latter  are  distinguished  by  the  quiet  instruction  that 
takes  place  in  the  inquiry  room.  Objections  may  easily  be 
29 


450  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

brought  against  both;  but  in  our  judgement  the  "mis- 
sions "  are  preferable  to  the  "revivals;"  yet  both  of  them, 
in  addition  to  the  actual  increase  of  church  membership, 
accomplish  a  great  deal  in  the  way  of  conversions  never 
reported  to  deacons  or  pastors,  and  which  in  their  turn 
elevate  the  moral  tone  of  many  households  and  are  particu- 
larly helpful  to  children.  The  Church  unquestionably 
should  sustain  these  aggressive  endeavors,  and  the  appro- 
priation of  some  of  their  working  plans  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  their  spirit,  may  be  what  is  needed  to  render  her 
more  efficient  in  her  peculiar  sphere  as  the  source  of  right- 
eousness. Be  this  as  it  may,  these  new  departures  should  be 
regarded  as  precursors  of  others,  and  earnest  Christians 
should  diligently  cooperate  with  whatever  seems  to  prom- 
ise good  to  the  world.  But  at  the  same  time  they  should 
not  fail  to  use,  and  if  necessary  improve,  the  instrument 
that  is  ready  for  their  service. 

This  brings  us  naturally  to  the  Sabbath-school,  the 
most  potent  religious  agency  yet  devised  and  employed  by 
the  Church  of  Christ.  It  is  mighty  as  it  is,  but  it  may  be 
made  mightier.  Already  it  can  train  millions  in  practical 
morality,  but  there  are  other,  and  as  many  millions  as  yet 
unreached.  We  are  of  those  who  would  like  to  see  one 
afternoon  each  week  devoted  to  its  work.  Just  as  we  have 
a  prayer-meeting  for  adults  on  Wednesday  or  Friday,  so 
would  we  have  two  hours  on  some  weekday  afternoon  set 
apart  for  the  religious  and  moral  culture  of  children.  The 
brief  time  allotted  on  Sunday  to  this  cause  is  hardly  com- 
mensurate with  its  importance.  Not  as  much  can  be 
accomplished  as  ought  to  be  in  one  hurried  session;  and 
several  advantages  would  also  be  gained  by  a  second, 
especially  if  held  on  a  week  day.  It  would  for  instance, 
enable  the  pastor  to  come  into  closer  relations  with  the 
young  of  his  flock;  and  it  would  likewise  tend  to  arrest  the 
growth  of  an  impression,  now  alas  !  too  common,  that 


THE   SUNDAY   SCHOOL.  451 

religion,  and  with  it  right  conduct,  is  essentially  a  some- 
thing for  the  Sabbath.  But  preeminently,  this  additional 
session  would  furnish  the  opportunity  needed  for  more 
thorough  instruction,  and  for  such  catechetical  exercises 
as  would  help  in  developing  the  conscience  of  the  child. 
While  we  are  anxious  for  .some  such  reform  as  this,  we  are, 
if  anything,  more  anxious  for  the  extension  of  Sunday 
school  privileges,  even  as  they  are,  to  the  now  neglected 
offspring  of  the  wretched  and  degraded.  Society  has  the 
right  to  demand  this  at  the  hands  of  the  Church;  nor  is 
this  beyond  her  power  to  perform.  She  has  wealth  enough, 
and  a  membership  numerous  enough,  to  bear  Christs'  gos- 
pel to  every  boy  and  girl  in  the  land.  Her  failure  to  do 
so  is  from  lack  of  will,  not  of  means.  Even  though  it  may 
not  always  be  possible  to  rent  halls  in  filthy  and  vile  neigh- 
borhoods, it  cannot  be  impracticable  to  procure  rooms  here 
and  there  where  groups  of  children  may  be  gathered. 
Some  churches  have  held  with  success  what  are  known  as 
cottage  prayer  meetings,  and  many  persons  have  been 
blessed  in  attending  them.  Why  not  adopt  the  same 
method,  when  better  ones  are  beyond  our  reach,  in  dealing 
with  the  children  of  the  criminal  and  the  unfortunate 
classes.  This  surely  would  be  better  than  nothing.  We 
ought  not  to  be  too  choice  about  means.  The  work  to  be 
done  is  the  one  thing  that  should  concern  us,  and  we 
should  hasten  to  its  performance  however  rude  may  seem 
the  appliances  at  our  disposal.  Certainly,  so  long  as  it  is 
neglected  the  ethical  education  of  Society  is  woefully  in- 
complete. Moreover,  the  Church  has  no  right  to  wait  on 
the  slow  action  of  the  State,  in  hopes  that  by  legislation 
the  moral  condition  of  these  waifs  and  arabs  may  be 
improved.  The  cry  of  these  forlorn  little  ones  ought 
to  smite  her  ear  and  heart,  and  impel  her  to  do  some- 
thing for  their  spiritual  well-being  worthy  her  glorious 
Lord,  and  the  glorious  mission  He  has  entrusted  to  her 


452  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

zeal.  As  Eobert  Kaikes  said,  "they  are  as  sheep  without 
a  shepherd,"  and  they  cry  for  pasture  and  a  fold.  Who 
shall  hear  and  help  if  not  the  church,  who  shall  lead  them 
to  quiet  resting  places  if  not  the  bride  of  Christ?  Mrs. 
Browning  has  pathetically  portrayed  the  bitter  lot  that 
curses  the  little  slaves  of  the  loom.  Read  her  words;  they 
are  significant: 

Well  rnay  those  children  weep  before  you, 

They  are  weary  ere  they  run  ; 
They  have  never  seen  the  sunshine,  nor  the  glory 

Which  is  brighter  than  the  sun. 
They  know  the  grief  of  man  but  not  the  wisdom  ; 

They  sink  in  man's  despair  without  its  calm  ; 
Are  slaves  without  the  liberty  in  Christdom, 

Are  martyrs,  by  the  pang  without  the  palm — 
Are  worn,  as  if  with  age,  yet  unretrievingly 

No  dear  remembrance  keep — 
Are  orphans  of  the  earthly  love  and  heavenly, 

Let  them  weep  !  let  them  weep  ! 

But  thousands  who  never  saw  a  loom  are  equally  misera- 
ble. They  too  are  slaves,  are  strangers  to  any  love,  human 
or  Divine,  and  spend  their  weary  days  in  the  darkness  and 
night  of  crime  and  vice.  And  has  the  church  nothing 
more  to  say  than  "  Let  them  weep !  let  them  weep  ? " 
Shame  on  her,  and  shame  on  her  despicable  affectation  of 
benevolence  if  that  is  all !  It  has  been  given  her  by  her 
Savior  to  speak  words  of  cheer,  and  hope  and  faith  ;  and 
He  has  given  her  more  than  words ;  He  has  bestowed  on 
her  His  Spirit — unless  she  has  grieved  Him  away — to  inspire 
her  with  His  compassion  for  the  weak  and  wretched.  Her 
duty  is  plain.  The  moral  training  of  humanity  is  involved 
in  her  spiritual  mission.  Grounded  as  it  is  in  religion, 
she  is  eminently  and  supereminently  qualified  to  carry  for- 
ward this  sublime  work  successfully.  She  is  to  prepare 
the  people  for  earth  as  well  as  for  heaven  ;  and  to  do  this 
she  is  bound  to  guide  them  in  the  ways  of  righteousness. 


THE   CHURCH    AND   THE    YOUNG.  453 

And  as  the  young  are  more  plastic  and  pliable  than  the 
old,  she  is  specially  bound,  while  not  neglecting  the  latter, 
to  bestow  most  of  her  care  on  the  former ;  and  if  she  can 
only  be  brought  to  realize  her  opportunity  and  responsibil- 
ity in  this  regard,  the  Education  of  Society  will  in  the 
future  be  more  general,  more  comprehensive  and  complete 
than  ever  in  the  past. 


X. 

THE   HOPE   OF   SOCIETY. 

Whence  such  love 

Of  fighting  somehow  still  for  fighting's  sake 
Against  no  matter  whose  the  liberty 
And  life,  so  long  as  self-conceit  should  crow 
And  clap  the  wing,  while  Justice  sheathed  her  claw. 
*****    Yor  truth  and  right,  and  only  right 
And  truth, — right,  truth,  on  the  absolute  scale  of  God, 
No  pettiness  of  man's  admeasurement, — 
In  such  case  only,  and  for  such  one  cause, 
Fight  your  hearts  out    ******* 
*    *    *    Endure  no  lie  which  needs  your  heart 
And  hand  to  push  it  out  of  mankind's  path. 
*****    -y^e  were  they  who  laid  her  low 
In  the  old  bad  day  when  Villainy  braved  Truth 
And  Right,  and  laughed,  "Henceforward,  God  deposed, 
The  Devil  is  to  rule  foreverrnore 
I'  the  world  ! "  —  whereof  to  stop  the  consequence, 
And  for  atonement  of  false  glory  there 
Gaped  at  and  gabbled  over  by  the  world, 
We  purpose  to  get  God  enthroned  again 
For  what  the  world  will  gird  at  as  sheer  shame 
I'  the  cost  of  blood  and  treasure. 

Robert  Browning. 

HE  poet  from  whose  inspiring  pages  we  have  so  fre- 
quently quoted  in  this  book,  wisely  observes: 

To  save  society  was  well :  the  means 
Whereby  to  save  it, — there  begins  the  doubt. 

This  doubt  must  often  be  felt  in  advocating  specific  rem- 
edies ;  but  there  is  one  source  of  hope,  which  few  will  dare 

454 


T 


A    CONTRAST.  455 

to  challenge,  and  which  needs  to  be  made  prominent  in 
these  restless  times  of  ours. 

Westminster,  which  for  centuries  has  been  the  theatre 
of  as  many  notable  events  as  any  other  spot  on  earth,  has 
within  the  past  six  mouths  presented  to  the  world  two 
scenes  remarkable  for  light  and  shade  and  for  deep  sig- 
nificance. The  historical  student  can  easily  recall  the 
many  famous  regal  displays,  State  trials,  and  parliamen- 
tary debates  which  have  occurred  in  the  old  hall;  and 
doubtless  will  be  inclined  to  linger  on  the  condemnation  of 
Charles  the  First ;  the  prostration  of  Chatham  ending  soon 
after  in  his  death,  when  pleading  for  reconciliation  with 
America  ;  and  the  speech  of  Burke  in  which  he  argued  that 
the  establishment  of  the  British  Colonies  on  principles  of 
liberty  would  yield  England  greater  glory  than  all  the  con- 
quests of  her  warlike  ancestors,  as  meaning  more  to  hu- 
manity than  the  pomp  and  splendor  of  princely  pageants 
and  the  brave  attire  and  lordly  magnificence  of  peers  and 
barons.  But  neither  in  the  old  hall  nor  the  new,  have 
there  ever  been  witnessed  more  impressive  contrasts,  or  any 
more  suggestive  both  morally  and  socially,  than  have  been 
exhibited  in  far-famed  Westminster  this  year.  Let  us 
observe  them. 

The  Queen  opens  parliament  in  person.  Her  retire- 
ment has  been  long,  and  once  more  she  proceeds  from  the 
palace  between  files  of  glittering  dragoons,  and  attended 
by  powdered  footmen  in  gay  apparel,  and  accompanied  by 
nobles  and  ecclesiastics  of  every  degree.  She  enters  the 
legislative  building  and  from  her  throne  reads  a  speech  full 
of  fine  phrases  and  glittering  generalities  about  her  people, 
her  colonies,  her  policy,  and  disappears  again  like  any  other 
royal  phantom  and  play  actor.  What  is  the  design  of  this 
spectacular  performance?  What  purpose  is  this  piece  of 
showy  and  pompous  medievalism  to  serve?  Evidently  it 
is  planned  and  executed  to  revive  the  drooping  loyalty  of 


456  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

the  masses,  to  appeal  to  their  imagination,  and  to  blind 
them  by  its  glare  to  the  iniquitious  and  tyrannous  measures 
by  which  the  Throne  has  misgoverned  Ireland.  The  fact 
that  such  an  appeal  has  to  be  made,  and  an  effort  put 
forth  to  cover  with  tinsel  finery  the  wrongs  and  cruelties 
of  successive  sovereigns,  is  indicative  of  the  tremendous 
strides  democracy  has  made  of  late.  Victoria  and  her 
advisers  by  this  parade  acknowledge  that  they  must  placate 
the  nation,  that  they  must  have  its  moral  support;  and 
this  is  at  once  to  confess  that  they  are  no  longer  supreme. 
The  other  scene  to  which  we  have  referred,  is  even  more 
striking;  and  while  it  is  the  very  opposite  in  all  essential 
features  to  this,  yet  it  supplements  and  completes  the 
lesson  conveyed  by  the  regal  show.  William  Ewart  Glad- 
stone leaves  his  residence  for  the  House  of  Commons.  No 
soldiers  support  and  guard  his  carriage,  no  bedizened  lack- 
eys burden  his  horses  with  their  lazy  weight;  but  multitudes 
throng  on  every  hand  with  waving  caps  and  noisy  cheers, 
and  as  as  he  passes  to  the  tribune  render  to  him  the  tribute 
of  their  confidence  and  love.  There  he  stands  on  the  eighth 
of  April,  an  old  man  with  giant  mind  and  eagle  eye,  the 
scowling  brows  of  the  Tories  bent  upon  him,  the  fealty  of 
his  own  adherents  wavering,  the  queen  frowning  on  him, 
and  disaster  and  defeat  grimly  confronting  him;  there  he 
stands,  as  once  stood  Huss  before  the  Council  of  Constance, 
or  as  Luther  stood  before  the  Diet  of  Worms,  strong  in  the 
consciousness  of  his  integrity  to  plead  for  justice,  for  just- 
ice to  Ireland;  not  for  titles,  gifts,  and  honors,  but  for 
justice,  simple  justice,  first,  last  and  altogether.  As  we 
read  his  magnificient  utterances,  as  we  fancy  that  we  hear 
them,  and  as  we  find  ourselves  agreeing  that  at  the  heart 
of  the  remedy  he  proposes  ''the  social  happiness,  the  power, 
and  the  permanence  of  the  Empire  "  in  security  reside,  we 
cannot  but  recall  the  wondrous  portrait  drawn  by  Brown- 
ing: 


THE   NEED   OF   JUSTICE.  457 

Thus  the  man, — 

So  timid  when  the  business  was  to  touch 
The  uncertain  order  of  humanity, 
Imperil,  for  a  problematic  cure 
Of  grievance  rm  the  surface,  any  good 
I'  the  deep  of  things,  dim  yet  discernable, — 
This  same  man,  so  irresolute  before, 
Show  him  a  true  excresence  to  cut  sheer, 
A  devil's-graft  on  God's  foundation-stone, 
Then — no  complaint  of  indecision  more! 
He  wrenched  out  the  whole  canker,  root  and  branch, 
Deaf  to  who  cried  the  world  would  tumble  in 
At  its  four  corners  if  he  touched  a  twig. 

In  extolling  Mr.  Gladstone  we  would  not  be  understood 
as  pronouncing  an  opinion  on  the  merits  of  the  scheme 
which  he  submitted  to  parliament.  We  are  not  sufficiently 
versed  in  such  matters  to  speak  confidently  of  the  states- 
manship revealed  in  all  his  measures.  What  we  do  per- 
ceive, what  we  do  appreciate,  is  his  desire  that  justice  shall 
henceforth  reign  in  the  relations  between  England  and 
Ireland.  He  raises  his  voice — and  this  is  what  we  approve 
— against  mere  policies,  expediences,  and  sophistries,  and 
insists  on  pure  and  absolute  justice.  But  more  than  this 
— and  it  is  this  which  completes  the  significance  of  the 
scenes  we  have  attempted  to  reproduce — he  seems  to  say, 
that  in  this  age  of  democracy,  in  this  age  when  kings  and 
queens  tremble  before  the  millions,  neither  state-craft  nor 
any  other  kind  of  craft  can  conserve  the  highest  interests 
of  Society.  Perhaps  they  never  could;  but  now  more  than 
ever,  justice  is  indispensable  to  the  welfare  and  happiness 
of  the  race.  This  is  the  message  that  comes  to  us  from 
these  recent  events  enacted  in  the  halls  of  Westminster; 
and  this  is  our  own  solemn  and  deliberate  conviction.  We 
believe  with  Theodore  Parker  that  "  justice  is  the  key- 
note of  the  world,  and  all  else  is  out  of  tune;"  and  with 
Chateaubriand,  "that  justice  is  the  bread  of  the  nation;; 


458  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

it  is  always  hungry  for  it;''  and  with  Diderot  that  "just- 
ice is  the  first  virtue  of  those  who  command,  and  stops  the 
complaints  of  those  who  obey."  A  Finland  story  relates 
how  a  mother  found  her  son  in  a  thousand  fragments  at 
the  bottom  of  the  river  of  death.  She  gathered  the  scat- 
tered members  to  her  bosom,  and  rocking  them  to  and  fro, 
sang  a  magic  song  which  united  them  again  and  restored 
the  departed  life.  That  mother  is  justice,  her  voice  is  law, 
which  as  Hooker  has  it,  "is  the  harmony  of  the  world," 
and  by  which,  if  not  alone,  at  least  supremely,  can  all  dis- 
cordant, dissevered  and  warring  classes  of  Society  be 
brought  into  closest  fellowship  and  be  charmed  into  mutual 
esteem  and  fair  accord. 

A  recent  article  in  the  Forum  has  revived  that  tragic 
episode  of  the •"  Odyssey,"  where  Ulysses  on  his  return  to 
his  wife  Penelope,  murders  the  suitors  who  had  beseiged 
her  during  his  absence,  also  destroying  some  dozen  of  her 
faithless  female  attendants.  Telemachus,  his  son,  takes  the 
nurse,  Euryclea,  to  behold  the  bloody  spectacle,  and  she 
gives  way  to  unbounded  joy.  The  writer  then  adds : 
"  Three  thousand  years  ago,  among  one  of  the  most  highly 
civilized  peoples  then  existing,  it  was  felt  that  if  woman 
stumbled  unexpectedly  on  the  bleeding  and  mangled  bodies 
of  a  company  of  men  whom  she  hated,  the  most  natural 
thing  for  her  to  do  was  to  feel  great  joy  and  give  loud  ex- 
pression to  it.  If  a  virtuous  woman  had  in  her  charge  a 
company  of  disobedient  and  unchaste  girls,  she  was  merely 
evincing  her  high  standard  of  morals  and  sense  of  duty  in 
leading  them  out  in  a  body  to  be  slaughtered  like  sheep." 
This,  he  says,  is  what  we  are  to  learn  from  the  passage. 
He  makes  this  statement,  and  rehearses  the  classic  story, 
for  the  purpose  of  showing  how  changed  is  humanity  from 
this  type,  and  that  he  may  more  effectively  point  out  the 
extreme  to  which  modern  philanthropy  has  been  carried. 
It  is,  in  his  opinion,  diseased,  m.orbid,  mischievous.  He 


SEJSTTIMENTALISM.  459 

says  that  a  brutal  murderer  in  New  York  during  the  last 
few  weeks  of  his  life,  was  the  recipient  of  many  delicacies 
supplied  by  ladies.  Maxwell,  he  might  also  have  cited  as 
an  other  instance  in  point.  He,  too,  has  received  flowers 
and  various  other  marks  of  sympathy  from  the  ladies  of  St. 
Louis.  We  are  not  hastily  to  conclude  that  these  females 
would  not  sicken  at  the  sight  of  blood,  would  not  faint 
were  a  murder  committed  in  their  presence,  and  would  not 
condemn  every  kind  of  suffering.  Far  from  it:  only  the 
source  of  these  intense  feelings  is  a  perversion  of  a  sound 
sentiment.  They  are  nervous,  excited,  hysterical  and  are 
as  much  overcome  by  deserved  pain  as  they  are  by  unde- 
served anguish.  In  what  they  do  they  are  not  so  much 
moved  by  love  of  humanity  as  by  love  of  self.  They  are  af- 
flicted themselves,  and  their  maudlin  interest  in  the  crim- 
inal is  only  a  form  of  interest  in  themselves.  Were  it  other- 
wise, they  would  recognize  that  the  punishment  of  rascal- 
ity carried  safety,  respect  and  honor  to  virtue.  Herbert 
Spencer  deplores  this  false  sentirnentalism;  and  Carlyle 
grows  indignant  that  it  should  occupy  so  large  a  place  in 
our  age.  But  whatever  may  be  said  in  its  defense,  one 
thing  is  very  evident,  the  pauperism  and  the  wretchedness 
of  Society  have  not  been  diminished  by  its  offices.  Never 
were  charities  as  numerous  and  as  magnificent  as  they  are 
today.  The  moneys  now  contributed  in  this  country  and 
in  England  by  benevolent  minded  persons  are  sufficient  to 
provide  for  the  actual  needs  of  every  destitute  family. 
Modern  benefactions  are  without  a  parallel  in  history.  Un- 
questionably, therefore,  something  is  wrong,  something  is 
out  of  sorts.  What  is  it  ?  May  it  not  be  that  we  have 
drifted  into  erroneous  conceptions,  and  appreciate  if  not 
too  highly,  at  least  disproportionately,  some  blessings  such 
as  liberty,  liberality  and  even  culture  ?  For  weary  centur- 
ies men  have  toiled  for  freedom,  and  they  have  sacrificed 
that  enlightenment  might  be  the  privilege  of  the  many,  and 


4GO  STUDIES    IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

have  preached  and  taught  that  money-giving  to  the  poor  is 
the  duty  of  all.  We  have  become  enamored  of  these  things. 
Contemplating  the  world's  dire  distress,  we  have  cried  out, 
"Be  free":  and  multitudes  are  free — to  starve.  Seeing 
the  wants  and  woes  of  mankind,  we  have  appealed  to  edu- 
cation— that  the  misery  may  be  more  intense  by  being 
known,  we  suppose;  or  we  have  advocated  wholesale  alms- 
giving, by  which  personal  dignity  is  diminished  and  general 
shiftlessness  increased.  But  all  this  time  we  seem  to  have 
overlooked  the  functions  and  value  of  justice.  It  does  not 
occur  to  us  that  after  all  liberty  is  but  a  temple  for  the 
exultation  of  justice,  and  that  it  is  not  only  without  God 
and  altar  when  justice  is  absent,  but  is  preparing  to  crum- 
ble to  pieces.  Nor  does  it  occur  to  us  usually  that  culture 
is  or  should  be  the  real  preparation  for  the  exercise  of  jus- 
tice, and  that  charity  can  only  supplement  the  sterner  vir- 
tue and  can  never  be  its  substitute.  We  have  mystified 
ourselves,  have  surrounded  ourselves  with  poetic  clouds, 
have  fallen  into  shallow  babblings  about  "light  and 
sweetness,"  and  have  almost  entirely  lost  sight  of  what 
is  in  reality  the  corner-stone  of  the  social  structure. 
A  writer  in  1853,  earnestly  said,  "  The  oppressed  classes 
do  not  want  charity  but  justice;  and  with  simple  justice 
the  necessity  for  charity  will  disappear  or  be  reduced  to 
the  minimum."  (See  Sovereignty  of  the  Individual.} 
Kuskin  has  repeated  this  idea;  and  we  are  satisfied  that 
not  until  justice  shall  be  enthroned  in  business  and  in 
all  other  relations,  as  well  as  in  the  administration  of  law, 
Avill  Society  be  delivered  from  the  foes  which  now  invade 
and  ravage.  Every  school  boy  has  heard  the  story  of  the 
widow  intercepting  the  progress  of  Philip  of  Macedon  with 
a  petition.  He  put  her  aside,  and  she  indignantly  cried, 
"  I  appeal."  "  Appeal,"  replied  the  monarch,  "  to  whom  ?" 
Swift  aud  sharp  the  answer  came,  "  Prom  Philip  drunk  to 
Philip  sober."  So  at  this  hour  the  starved  and  sorrowing 


JUSTICE    AN'I)    I'.KN'KVOI.EX!.'!:.  -Kil 

are  appealing  from  Society  intoxicated  with  sentiment  and 
rhapsodies  concerning  feedom  and  charity,  to  Society 
sobered  by  justice;  and  when  justice  shall  be  reasserted, 
then  may  we  hope  to  see  but  few  of  the  gaunt  faces  and 
withered  forms  which  are  now  both  a  reproach  and  a  threat. 
And  then 

Yea,  even  from  these,  who  grim  and  stern, 

Glared  anger  upon  you  of  old, 
Oh,  citizens  !    Ye  then  shall  earn 

A  recompense  right  manifold. 
Deck  them  aright,  extol  them  high, 

Be  loyal  to  their  loyalty; 
And  ye  shall  make  their  town  and  land 

Sure,  propped  on  Justice'  saving  hand, 
And  Fame's  eternity. 

Hume  has  an  essay  on  the  subject  of  this  paper,  in 
which  he  attempts  to  trace  the  origin  of  justice  to  utility. 
In  doing  this  he  imagines  a  reign  of  abundance  in  which 
neither  clothing  nor  husbandry  would  be  required,  and 
where  there  could  be  no  question  regarding  mine  and  thine; 
and  he  argues  that  in  such  an  earthly  Paradise  the  virtue 
we  are  considering  could  have  no  place.  An  era  of  uni- 
versal benevolence  would  exclude  it;  for  if  we  were 
generous  and  seeking  to  give  there  would  be  no  need  for 
strictly  defined  rights.  This  conception  he  illustrates  by 
reproducing  the  mythical  sway  of  Saturn  in  which  exer- 
tion was  not  required,  and  where  no  passions  such  as  greed 
or  ambition  marred  the  happiness  of  mankind.  In  these 
circumstances  justice  would  be  swallowed  up  by  benevo- 
lence. We  are  not  going  to  controvert  his  utilitarian 
theory:  we  have  no  confidence  in  it;  but  we  shall  not 
debate  its  merits.  There  is,  however,  one  thought  not  un- 
deserving of  notice  suggested  by  his  essay.  It  is  this: 
while  justice  does  not  spring  from  the  idea  of  the  useful, 
it  certainly,  according  to  his  showing,  is  in  itself  of  the 
highest  practical  value.  If  only  the  reign  of  Saturn  would 


462  STUDIES  Itf  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

supersede  it,  so  long  as  that  reign  is  delayed  it  must  be 
vital  to  order  and  prosperity.  We  know  there  is  nothing 
like  this  halcyon  period  experienced  on  earth  at  present. 
Rather  the  opposite.  Our  age  is  Saturnian  in  quite  another 
sense:  in  the  sense  described  by  the  Dunciad: 

Then  rose  the  seed  of  Chaos  and  of  Night 
To  blot  out  order  and  extinguish  Light, 
Of  dull  and  venal  a  new  world  to  mould 
And  bring  Saturnian  days  of  lead  and  gold. 

If  these  lines  portray  Society  as  it  is,  then  while  universal 
love  would  be  delightful,  in  its  absence  we  must  have  uni- 
versal justice.  This  will  be  more  apparent  if  we  will  only 
take  pains  to  form  an  adequate  conception  of  the  compre- 
hensive character  of  the  principle  itself.  The  reflections 
of  wise  men  will  assist  us  materially  in  this  endeavor. 
Aristotle  regards  it  as  a  complex  virtue:  "  For  as  it  is  the 
habit  which  disposes  to  allegiance  to  the  laws,  and  as  laws 
prohibit  excesses  of  every  kind,  and  encourage  virtues  of 
all  kinds,  this  will  have  respect  to  them  all."  Hence,  he 
adds,  that  it  is  moderation,  as  regulated  by  wisdom;  and 
that  it  always  gives  to  every  man  his  own.  It  consists, 
according  to  Cicero,  in  suo  cuique  tribuendo,  in  rendering 
to  every  one  his  right.  The  Pythagoreans  regarded  it  as 
inclusive  of  all  duties,  and  the  word  "righteousness"  is 
employed  in  the  Bible  in  the  same  manner.  "Whe well  says, 
that  "it  excludes  cupidity  or  eagerness  in  our  desires  for 
wealth;  all  covetousness,  or  wish  to  possess  what  is  an- 
others;  all  partiality,  or  disposition  to  deviate  from  equal 
rule  in  judging  between  ourselves  and  others.  The  rule  of 
action  is,  let  each  man  have  his  own,  except  so  far  as  the 
former  rule  directs  him  to  do  so.  Justice  gives  to  each 
man  his  own;  but  each  ought  to  cling  to  his  own,  not  from 
the  love  of  riches,  but  from  the  love  of  justice."  Well 
may  Addison  in  view  of  such  an  ethical  quality  as  this, 
exclaim,  "  To  be  perfectly  just  is  an  attribute  of  the  Divine 


DIFFICULT  TO   BE  JUST.  463 

nature;  to  be  so  to  the  utmost  of  our  abilities  is  the  glory 
of  man":  may  we  not  add,  and  the  glory  of  Society  as 
well?  Now  who  can  doubt  but  that  the  supremacy  of  this 
principle  would  in  a  great  measure  allay  strife  and  bitter- 
ness, and  lead  to  general  prosperity  and  happiness?  Were 
the  authorities  to  see  that  all  men  had  their  dues;  were  the 
members  of  every  community  to  respect  each  others'  rights; 
were  they  "to  curb  desire  within  the  bounds  of  the 
enough";  " were  they  to  widen  their  means  by  narrowing 
their  wants";  and  were  they 

To  reverence  their  conscience  as  a  king 
And  glory  in  redressing  human  wrong, 

there  would  be  ample  opportunity  for  every  individual  to 
earn  a  living;  there  would  be  more  than  sufficient  remu- 
neration to  meet  actual  necessities;  there  would  be  few,  if 
any,  degrading  conditions  in  life;  and  there  would  be 
much  more  contentment,  mutual  confidence  and  frater- 
nity. 

But  it  is  very  difficult  to  be  really  just.     Not  many  can 
say  of  themselves,  we  are 

Blood  trained  up  nine  centuries 
To  hound  and  hate  a  lie; 

and  fewer  still  who  are  as  exacting  with  themselves  as  they 
are  with  others.  Dr.  Johnson,  after  large  observation, 
said,  "  I  have  found  men  more  kind  than  I  expected,  and 
less  just."  This  to  our  readers  may  appear  to  be  wholly 
an  exceptional  experience.  They  are  mistaken.  Let  them 
think  of  the  leading  characters  of  history,  and  we  are 
assured  they  will  conclude  that  Dr.  Johnson  had  good  rea- 
son for  his  opinion.  Dr.  Withington,  in  Bib.  Sacra  (vol. 
xxviii.),  makes  the  following  remarks  on  the  point  before 
us: 

Dean  Swift  singles  out  six  characters  to  form  a  sextumvirate  of 
worthies  to  which  all  the  ages  of  the  world  could  not  add  a  seventh. 


464  STUDIES   IN   SOCIAL   L.TK. 

And  who  were  these  rare  birds?  Brutus;  his  ancestor,  Junius, 
Socrates,  Epaminondes,  Cato,  and  Sir  Thomas  More.  Leaving  out  those 
who  do  not  belong  to  this  age,  Marcus  Brutus  and  the  Utican  Cato 
remain;  both  of  them  old  women  in  their  politics,  and  hypocrites  and 
scamps  in  all  their  private  conduct.  Cicero  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag 
in  his  letters — the  only  true  history  of  that  period.  Brutus  was  a 
kind  of  Sir  Giles  Overreach,  a  gross  exactor,  willing  to  take  a  ruinous 
interest,  and  to  collect  it  by  most  ruinous  methods.  Cicero  was 
obliged  to  remonstrate  with  him.  And  the  spotless  Cato,  when  the 
spotless  Clodius  sent  him  to  rob  the  Cyprians,  on  purpose  to  make 
him  as  bad  as  himself,  accepted  the  office  on  the  same  ground  that  a 
conscientious  rum-seller  sells  liquor  to  drunkards — l>ecause  if  he  does 
not,  somebody  else  will. 

Yet  these  names  are  associated  in  our  mind  with  the 
loftiest  sentiments  of  patriotism,  and  of  heroism.  They 
could  talk  beautifully,  and  at  times  act  beautifully;  but 
when  it  came  to  absolute  square  dealing  they  were  appar- 
ently deficient  in  discernment  and  decision.  In  any  ordi- 
nary circle  of  acquaintance  multiplied  instances  will  occur 
of  men  who  are  yielding  and  affectionate  at  home,  but  who 
are  harsh  and  overreaching  abroad.  They  even  find  it 
easier  to  give  money  than  to  divide  a  portion  of  the  profits 
among  those  whose  labors  have  earned  them;  easier  to  be 
charitable  than  upright.  Perhaps  this  is  to  be  explained 
by  the  loud  eulogies  usually  pronounced  on  philanthropic 
generosity,  and  by  the  indifference  of  Society  as  a  rule  to 
mere  exactness  of  conduct.  There  is  praise  for  the  one, 
and  only  respectful  silence  for  the  other.  If  a  man  who 
never  pays  his  debts  is  liberal  with  his  alms  a  thousand  ex- 
cuses are  invented  to  palliate  his  delinquencies;  whereas 
if  he  only  honors  his  obligations  and  never  contributes  to 
the  relief  of  the  poor,  he  is  set  down  as  sordid  and  close- 
fisted.  No  wonder,  then,  that  he  should  be  influenced 
by  public  opinion  and  should  conclude  that  charity  is 
better  than  justice.  Moreover,  he  hears  continually  that 
the  former  grace  "  covers  a  multitude  of  sins,"  and  with- 


FALSE   IDEAS   OF  JUSTICE.  465 

out  stopping  to  ascertain  the  precise  force  of  this  passage, 
he  infers  that  it  opens  a  way  of  escape  when  he  neglects 
and  insults  the  latter.  It  is  the  boast  of  many  gamblers 
and  of  bohemians  generally  that  they  are  generous  to  a 
fault,  and  they  quietly  assume  that  they  have  Scripture 
warrant  for  the  belief  that  God  will  take  this  in  full  quit- 
tance for  unpaid  board  and  tailor  bills,  whatever  Society 
may  say  about  it.  Thus  deluded,  it  is  not  strange  that  the 
rule  of  equity  should  be  held  by  a  great  many  persons  as 
of  secondary  importance  only.  Nor  is  this  the  sole  cause 
that  operates  to  its  disadvantage.  Somehow  we  have  come 
to  associate  the  idea  of  justice  with  courts  of  law,  with 
judges  and  with  the  tedious  technicalities  of  jurisprudence. 
\ve  think  of  it  on  the  bench,  guarded  by  policemen,  and 
dealing  in  somnolent  platitudes.  Having  assigned  it  a 
specific  place  in  the  social  economy,  it  is  our  aim  to  keep 
out  of  its  clutches;  and  if  this  can  only  be  done,  we  lay 
the  nattering  unction  to  our  soul  that  however  numerous 
may  be  our  frauds  and  oppressions,  we  are  above  reproach. 
Almost  anything  and  everything  passes  for  right  in  our 
times  that  does  not  land  the  perpetrator  in  the  penitentiary. 
So  long  as  such  ideas  prevail,  so  long  as  we  invest  justice 
with  officialism,  as  in  England  it  is  invested  with  a  wig,  and 
fail  to  see  that  it  is  an  every-day  principle,  applicable  to 
every  commonplace  relation,  and  needing  no  formal  and 
public  installation  to  render  it  dignified  and  authoritative, 
we  shall  find  it  next  to  impossible  to  cultivate  it  as  a  per- 
sonal virtue  indispensable  to  genuine  worthiness  of  char- 
acter. Nor  should  it  be  overlooked  that  rarely,  indeed, 
do  men  propose  justice  as  the  end  and  aim  of  their  exist- 
ence. Some  doubtless  do;  but  the  number  is  inconsider- 
able. The  majority  have  other  ambitions.  To  be  rich,  to 
be  famous,  to  be  learned — these  are  our  aspirations,  and 
we  set  out  to  achieve  them,  not  being  always  particular  as 
to  the  means  we  employ.  The  celebrated  Patin,  on  a 
30 


466  STUDIES  IK   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

memorable  occasion,  said:  "An  ancient  Crock  bad  a 
lyre,  whereof  one  string  was  broken.  Instead  of  replacing 
it  with  gut,  he  chose  a  silver  cord;  and  the  lyre  lost  its 
tune."  The  larger  part  of  humanity  has  imitated  the 
foolish  Hellenist.  Harps  are  we;  but  we  have  substituted 
the  silver  ambitions  of  earth  for  the  cord  of  justice  received 
from  heaven;  and  the  result  is  we  are  out  of  tune  ourselves 
and  Society  is  not  in  harmony  about  us.  Any  one  can  see 
that  we  are  likely  to  get  what  we  go  for,  and  if  we  are  for 
obtaining  wealth  we  shall  at  least  not  gain  moral  distinc- 
tion. Important  is  it  that  the  very  desires  of  the  heart 
be  regenerated.  Suppose  that  we  should  covenant  with 
each  other  to  live  for  justice,  to  strive  for  it,  to  defend  it, 
and,  if  needs  be,  to  die  for  it.  What  a  change  would  ensue. 
There  would  be  no  knowing  our  old  world  under  such  a 
regime.  But  beyond  this,  what  a  magnificent  type  of 
character  would  be  developed.  Such  a  purpose  as  we  have 
suggested  would  elevate  the  individual,  would  free  him  from 
sordidness,  cupidity  and  all  the  other  mean  vices  that  follow 
in  their  train.  Unhappily  the  ideal  is  not  easily  realizable; 
and  this  fact,  taken  together  with  the  other  difficulties 
we  have  sketched,  makes  plain  why  it  does  not  triumph 
everywhere  to  the  joy  of  the  race. 

But  even  this  apology  does  not  fully  extenuate  the  pre- 
valence of  injustice.  While  it  does  so  in  some  degree,  it 
does  not  do  so  completely;  neither  does  it  materially  lessen 
the  criminality  of  those  who  think  and  act  as  though  no 
everlasting  law  of  right  were  binding  on  them.  Perhaps 
their  apparent  oblivion  to  its  claims  is  to  be  explained  by 
a  failure  to  discern  in  their  conduct  anything  deserving  of 
censure.  We  are  at  the  best  inconsistent  mortals,  and 
while  we  very  readily  perceive  what  is  wrong  in  our  neigh- 
bors, we  are  usually  slow  in  detecting  it  in  ourselves.  It  may 
not,  therefore,  be  out  of  place  to  illustrate  this  thought, 
especially  as  it  will  enable  us  to  form  a  better  and  clearer 


PARTISAN   PREACHERS.  467 

idea  of  the  extent  to  which  injustice  is  being  carried  in 
modern  Society. 

During  the  period  of  intense  religious  and  political 
agitation  in  France,  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier  said 
that  she  had  effected  more  through  the  mouth  of  her 
preachers  than  all  others  with  their  intrigues,  arms  and 
armies.  This,  however,  was  not  very  creditable  to  the 
preachers;  for  it  implied  that  they  were  partisans,  and 
were  not  over-nice  in  what  they  said  to  gain  their  end. 
It  is  related  of  Paul  V.  that  on  one  occasion  he  said:  " Let 
us  pray  God  to  inspire  Cardinal  Duperron,  for  he  will  per- 
suade us,  whatever  he  chooses."  This  was  a  distinguished 
compliment;  and  yet  there  is  the  insinuation  that  the 
Cardinal's  wonderful  eloquence  was  not  always  careful  to 
keep  within  the  bounds  of  truth.  The  position  of  the 
clergyman  is  certainly  one  of  great  influence  and  responsi- 
bility; and  these  increase  in  proportion  as  he  is  able  to 
bring  to  his  office  the  graces  and  arts  of  oratory.  He  may 
become  merely  the  echo  of  public  opinion,  as  the  Mont- 
pensier preachers  were,  or  the  demagogue,  as  we  fear  the 
brilliant  Duperron  sometimes  was.  When  this  is  the  case, 
he  falls  a  long  way  beneath  his  opportunity.  The  minis- 
ter of  Christ  should  be  preeminently  just.  Many  teachers 
insist  that  he  shall  be  a  loving  being,  having  faith  and 
piety;  but  they  rarely  perceive  that  above  all  he  should  be 
just.  He  has  to  point  out  the  iniquities  of  others,  and  has 
constantly  to  discriminate  in  the  domain  of  motives;  and 
frequently  he  has  to  arbitrate  between  contending  parties 
and  conflicting  interests.  He  needs  something  of  the  judi- 
cial instinct,  grounded  in  the  most  conscientious  veracious- 
ness,  if  he  is  to  discharge  his  functions  honorably.  Yet, 
how  little  of  this  quality  we  discern  in  the  pulpit.  Its 
representatives  are  generally  very  ready  to  detect  public 
outrages,  and  not  a  few  are  quite  willing  to  say  precisely 
what  they  think  of  them ;  but  in  doing  so,  and  on  other 


468  STUDIES  IK   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

occasions,  not  unlikely  they  will  practically  allow  in  them- 
selves what  they  condemn  in  others.  We  heard  a  popular 
preacher  say  once  that  it  cost  1100,000  for  every  "pig- 
tail," meaning  by  the  chaste  allusion  every  Chinaman, 
who  was  reported  converted.  Doubtless  he  had  no  design 
to  deceive;  nevertheless  the  statement  was  unfair  and 
inaccurate.  Another  minister  in  his  zeal  set  the  number 
of  fallen  women  in  Chicago  so  high  that  every  ninth  or 
tenth  female  would  naturally  be  subject  to  cruel  suspicion. 
Now  there  is  nothing  gained  by  such  exaggerations. 
They  do  not  convince  anyone;  and  recklessness  in  sacred 
places  encourages  it  elsewhere.  Nor  is  this  all.  Ministers 
have  incurred  the  suspicion  of  partisanship,  especially  in 
regard  to  the  disputes  between  the  rich  and  the  poor.  It 
is  thought  by  the  laboring  classes  that  they  are  quick  to 
recognize  the  iniquity  of  a  "strike,"  but  not  of  a  "lock- 
out;" that  they  are  prompt  to  denounce  a  "boycott"  by 
the  "Knights,"  but  not  to  condemn  the  magnates  who,  by 
undercutting  of  rates,  try  to  "boycott"  a  rival  railroad; 
and  that  they  are  all  the  while  covering  up  the  delinquen- 
cies of  the  affluent,  while  they  are  ever  exposing  the  short- 
comings of  the  needy.  They  say  that  such  treatment  is  not 
fair,  and  they  have  a  very  ugly  way  of  characterizing  the 
shepherds  who  seem  to  think  more  of  the  fleece  than  of 
the  sheep.  Unquestionably  these  critics  are  themselves 
not  always  fair  in  their  censures;  but  the  fact  remains 
that  they  drift  away  from  Divine  worship,  and  render  no 
practical  allegiance  to  Christianity.  Not  unexpectedly  we 
discover  while  they  are  complaining  of  the  clerical  order, 
they,  too,  are  guilty  of  tyrannies  and  oppressions. 

In  South  Framingham  two  or  three  years  ago,  an  effi- 
cient artisan  was  obliged  to  remove,  because  his  fellow 
workmen  would  not  tolerate  his  presence  among  them  on 
account  of  his  superior  skill  and  industry.  They  insisted 
that  he  must  come  down  to  their  level,  or  the  master  must 


TRADES-USIOX   TYKANNY.  469 

discharge  him.  Similar  high-handed  proceedings  we  have 
had  of  late  in  the  effort  made  to  drive  all  non-union  men 
out  of  employment.  This  is  an  outrageous  procedure.  A 
so-called  voluntary  society  sends  a  committee  to  a  "boss" 
and  says,  ''you  have  half-a-dozen  persons  in  your  shops 
who  are  not  members  with  us,  and  we  demand  that  you 
dismiss  them."  The  "boss"  calls  the  men  to  him,  and 
asks  if  they  wish  to  join  this  particular  organization,  stat- 
ing that  so  far  as  he  is  concerned  it  is  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence. They  answer  "No."  What  follows?  The  union 
men  are  commanded  to  strike,  and  the  master  is  deprived 
of  the  means  necessary  to  fulfill  his  contracts;  and  the  only 
way  he  can  purchase  peace  is  by  a  manifest  act  of  unfair 
dealing  with  the  non-unionists.  Such  methods  in  their 
essential  nature  are  criminal,  and  are  unworthy  lovers  of 
liberty.  This  sort  of  compulsion  is  as  tyrannous  as  auj 
similar  act  committed  by  kings  or  popes,  and  is  just  as 
reprehensible  in  American  citizens  as  in  eastern  despots. 
Again  we  are  reminded  of  Proudhon's  paradox:  "No  one 
is  less  democratic  than  the  people."  Hugh  Miller  verifies 
this  sentiment  when  he  exposes  the  cruelties  perpetrated 
by  stonemasons;  and  it  is  every  day  illustrated  by  the 
spitefulness,  harshness,  and  petty  cruelties  of  foremen 
and  forewomen  in  large  establishments.  Yet  these  same 
foremen,  and  the  toilers  who  suffer  and  cause  suffering  in 
turn,  are  clear-eyed  enough  to  detect  injustice  in  their  su- 
periors. "That  is  true,"  these  superiors  will  doubtless 
respond;  "they  are  as  bad  as  we  are."  That  may  be;  but 
have  you  who  possess  your  millions  ever  really  stopped  to 
find  out  how  bad  you  are?  You  cry  against  the  demands 
of  labor;  you  characterize  its  friends  as  ignorant  agitators; 
and  you  see  nothing  sacred  but  capital.  But  you  are  blind, 
fatally  blind,  to  your  own  short-comings  and  inhumanity. 
The  president  of  the  Wabash  system  of  railroads  has 
recently  waxed  eloquently  indignant  against  the  Knights 


470  STUDIES  IN   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

of  Labor,  and  has  shown  how  these  "  marauders "  have 
"killed"  engines  and  interrupted  traffic.  Well,  they  are 
to  be  blamed ;  but  how  about  the  president  himself  ? 
A  Mr.  McDowell  gave  before  the  House  committee  as 
one  cause  of  the  southwestern  strike,  "the  universal 
system  of  watering  railroad  stocks,  which  makes  it  neces- 
sary for  railroad  managers  to  screw  down  the  wages  of 
labor  as  much  as  possible."  Indeed;  and  in  this  business 
the  chief  of  the  South- Western  is  notoriously  efficient. 
With  remarkable  unanimity  the  press  of  the  country  has 
characterized  him  as  "a  railroad  wrecker."  Now,  if  it  is 
unjust  to  "kill"  an  engine,  what  is  it  to  destroy  an  entire 
road  for  one's  personal  advantage?  But  this  gentleman  is 
not  alone  in  his  sin.  The  Current,  March  20,  1886,  has 
this  astounding  statement:  "  The  ethics  of  business  for  a 
generation  has  been  enough  to  make  a  Gomorrah  of  this 
nation."  Is  it  so  ?  Startling  as  this  statement  is  we  can 
believe  it,  and  if  for  no  other  reason,  because  the  third 
annual  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  of  the 
state  of  New  York — 1885 — sadly  confirms  it.  Commis- 
sioner Peck,  its  author,  tells  of  women  toiling  eighteen 
hours  for  twenty-five  cents,  of  the  hard,  grinding  policy  of 
the  "sweaters,"  or  middle  men,  whose  only  aim  is  to  make 
as  much  as  possible  out  of  the  poor  wretches  they  employ. 
The  scenes  of  horror  portrayed  in  this  official  document 
are  as  pitiable  and  dramatically  thrilling  as  anything  in 
Victor  Hugo's  "Les  Miserables."  Not  far  are  we  from 
Sodom,  these  things  being  true.  We  all  seem  to  have  gone 
into  overreaching.  The  riots  in  Belgium  were  in  part 
caused  by  the  system  of  compelling  miners  to  purchase 
their  food  on  credit  from  their  employers.  If  the  accounts 
are  inaccurate  they  have  no  remedy,  and  the  least  com- 
plaint ends  in  immediate  dismissal,  and  starvation.  Not 
dissimilar  the  custom  in  the  West  for  some  railroad  corpo- 
rations to  sell  a  few  acres  to  their  brakemen,  which  they 


THE    PRESS    YARD.  471 

pay  for  in  installments;  and  when  they  have  nearly  paid 
to  discharge  them  for  some  imaginary  fault,  thus  depriving 
them  of  the  means  wherewith  to  make  the  final  payments, 
the  property  in  case  of  failure  reverting  to  the  company. 
Such  practices  on  the  part  of  monopolists  and  capitalists,  or 
their  representatives,  are  quietly  passed  over  as  involving  no 
moral  qualities,  or  at  least  none  of  a  serious  kind;  and  yet 
evidently  they  are  charged  and  surcharged  through  and 
through  with  black  injustice.  When  we  think  of  such 
things  we  are  painfully  reminded  of  that  old  form  of  pun- 
ishment known  in  the  times  "when  wretches  swung  that 
jurymen  might  dine,"  as  the  peine  forte  et  dure.  This 
penalty  consisted  in  pressing  the  accused  to  death  for  re- 
fusing to  plead.  The  "  Press  Yard  "  at  Newgate,  though 
not  now  used  for  the  purpose  denoted  by  its  name,  bears 
silent  witness  still  to  the  frequency  of  this  torture.  The 
victim  was  laid  on  his  back  with  his  hands  and  feet  se- 
cured; a  plank  was  put  on  him,  and  then  weights  were 
piled  on  him  until  he  cried  out  that  he  would  plead,  or 
was  crushed  to  death.  This  has  its  parallel  in  social  life, 
Thousands  of  unfortunates  are  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
poverty,  and  burdens  and  cares  are  multiplied  upon  them, 
Every  conceivable  advantage  is  taken  of  them  by  those 
whose  position  is  more  assured  and  eligible  than  their  own, 
Slowly  they  are  ground  down  until  existence  is  unendurable, 
and  they  hail  as  the  only  happy  moment  experienced  on 
earth  the  one  that  heralds  the  opening  of  a  grave.  In 
England  during  the  year  1735  a  dumb  man  was  condemned 
to  suffer  fas  peine  forte  et  dure.  His  judges  would  not  be- 
lieve that  he  could  not  speak  and  so  they  handed  him  over 
to  this  torture,  with  what  results  our  readers  can  readily 
imagine.  Oh,  sirs,  the  most  wretched  of  our  suffering 
ones — the  women  who  stitch  and  starve,  and  the  over- 
tasked children  in  our  factories — are  also  dumb.  They 
have  no  voice  of  their  own,  nor  are  there  many  voices  to 


472  STUDIES    IX   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

plead  for  them.  But  their  mute  helplessness  and  despair 
ought  to  appeal  to  us  more  loudly  than  earthly  eloquence 
can.  We  have  read  somewhere  that  in  one  of  the  old  cities 
of  Italy  the  king  caused  a  bell  to  be  hung  in  a  tower  and 
called  it  the  "Bell  of  Justice."  He  likewise  ordered  that 
any  one  who  had  been  wronged  should  ring  that  bell,  and 
the  magistrate  should  come  to  his  relief.  In  the  course  of 
time  the  lower  part  of  the  rope  rotted  away,  and  a  wild 
vine  was  tied  to  lengthen  it.  A  starving  horse  that  had 
been  turned  out  to  die  in  his  age  seeing  the  vine  gnawed 
it,  and  in  doing  so  rang  the  bell.  Straightway  came  the 
magistrate,  and  having  ascertained  in  whose  service  the 
animal's  life  had  been  spent,  he  said:  "The  dumb  brute 
has  rung  the  bell  of  justice,  and  justice  he  shall  have;  the 
owner  shall  care  for  him  the  rest  of  his  days."  Humane 
magistrate !  But  is  not  the  bell  of  justice  ringing  now  ? 
Hark!  it's  solemn  strokes  fall  upon  the  ear  of  Society,  rung 
by  hands  hardened  with  unprofitable  toil,  by  tattered  and 
starved  men,  women,  and  children,  who  are  no  more  to  you 
great  ones  than  the  dumb,  driven  cattle.  Listen,  listen ; 
let  it  wake  you  up!  But  should  you  fail  to  hear,  it  may 
rouse  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  who  in  his  own  good  time 
will  decree  justice;  justice  that  means  respite  and  rest  for 
the  oppressed,  and  retribution  and  remorse  for  the  op- 
pressor. 

It  is  perhaps  impossible  for  anyone  to  anticipate  in  full 
the  beneficent  results  that  would  flow  to  Society  from  the 
adoption  and  loyal  application  of  this  principle.  We  see 
the  bitter  dead-sea  fruit  that  has  attended  its  decay  ;  and 
by  contrasting  the  actual  with  the  problematical  we  may 
arrive  at  least  very  near  to  a  true  conception.  The  Bible 
also  aids  us  in  such  an  endeavor.  We  have  in  the  prophe- 
cies wonderful  visions  of  a  blissful  age,  of  an  era  when  the 
lion  and  the  lamb  shall  lie  down  together,  when  childhood 
shall  be  innocent  and  happy,  when  existence  shall  be  pro- 


THE    REIOX    OF    JUSTICE.  473 

longed,  and  when  the  cry  of  suffering  and  the  chuckle  of 
fraud  shall  be  heard  no  more  for  ever.  All  of  these  pic- 
tures have  their  back-ground  in  the  Divine  attribute  real- 
ized on  earth — "righteousness."  It  is  called  the  "reign  of 
righteousness  ; "  it  reveals  to  us  a  king  who  is  said  to  "rule 
in  righteousness  ; "  and  so  prevalent  is  righteousness  to  be, 
that  its  extent  is  likened  to  the  waters  that  cover  the  great 
deep.  Remember  that  righteousness  and  justice  are  prac- 
tically synonymous  terms,  particularly  in  the  language  of 
Scripture,  and  that  we  have,  therefore,  in  these  representa- 
tions inspired  sanction  of  the  hope  defended  in  this  paper. 
And  it  is  well  to  mark  in  passing,  that  the  regeneration  of 
Society  is  not  by  this  authority  ascribed  to  sentiment,  emo- 
tion, poetry,  or  liberty,  but  to  justice ;  and  that  here  we 
have  confirmation  strong  of  our  fundamental  position. 
Sages  and  saints  evidently  cannot  conceive  of  a  State 
grounded  in  any  other  virtue,  if  it  is  to  prosper  and  be 
permanently  honored.  Justice  is  the  basis  which  they 
make  prominent,  and  never  leave  the  impression  that  a 
worthy  community  could  possibly  rest  on  anything  less 
firm  and  stern.  By  bringing  their  views  and  their  expec- 
tations together,  we  may  not  only  gain  a  glimpse  of  the 
land  of  promise  opening  before  justice,  but  additional  con- 
fidence in  its  power  to  achieve  therein  a  possession.  But 
though  we  may  not  be  able  to  grasp  and  anticipate  in  de- 
tail all  that  shall  be  in  the  future  when  kingly  righteous- 
ness shall  reign,  we  can  do,  what  is  infinitely  of  more  im- 
portance to  us  now — we  can  note  the  bearing  of  obligations 
which  it  imposes  on  the  welfare  of  mankind. 

In  the  course  of  this  paper  we  have  found  that  justice  is 
that  which  renders  to  every  man  his  due,  or  what  to 
phrase  it  differently,  is  his  right.  But  this  opens  a  large 
and  serious  question:  What  is  the  due  of  every  man? 
How  is  this  to  be  determined,  and  what  does  it  involve  and 
guarantee?  Rousseau  has  called  attention  to  the  historic 


474  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL   LIFE. 

fact  that  the  father  of  every  nation  is  in  some  sort  a  legis- 
lator. The  names  of  Moses,  Menou,  Minos,  Solon, 
Lycurgus,  and  Numa  substantiate  this  assertion.  But 
above  all  these  great  leaders  stands  Jesus  Christ,  who 
legislated,  not  for  a  race  or  country,  but  for  the  world. 
He  gave  to  us,  or  at  least  ratified,  the  Golden  Rule — "Do 
unto  others  as  you  would  be  done  by  " — which  has  com- 
mended itself  to  the  conscience,  reason  and  confidence  of 
mankind  as  the  highest  formula  of  social  justice.  Its  hold 
on  the  intellectual  allegiance  of  the  world  is  as  great  to-day 
as  ever,  however  disloyal  the  people  may  be  in  the  conduct 
of  their  affairs  to  its  requirements;  and  on  account  of  its 
character  it  is  evidently  destined  to  perpetual  authority. 
Here  then  we  have  the  answer  to  the  question — "  what  is 
the  due  of  every  man?" — radically  and  essentially  just 
what  is  due  ourselves.  Rendering  to  all  others  what  we 
would  regard  as  our  right  were  our  positions  changed,  will 
come  nearer  to  fulfilling  the  great  idea  of  justice  than  any 
line  of  action  definable.  The  rule  is  grounded  in  the 
natural  equality  of  humanity,  in  the  native  needs  of  every 
soul,  and  in  the  unquestionable  obligation  of  every  other 
soul  not  to  prevent  their  supply.  Carry  out  this  precept 
and  no  woman  will  be  doomed  for  a  beggarly  pittance  to 
toil  fourteen  or  sixteen  hours  a  day;  no  clerk  will  be  com- 
pelled to  work  overtime,  as  is  exacted  by  some  of  our  wealth- 
iest firms,  without  additional  compensation;  no  commer- 
cial gambler  will  trick  his  customers  or  appropriate  trust 
funds;  no  judge  will  betray  the  cause  of  the  innocent  for 
a  bribe;  and  no  laborer  will  boycott  another  because  he  is 
not  a  member  of  a  Trades  Union;  and  they  will  not  be 
guilty  of  such  treatment  as  they  themselves  would  feel 
outraged  were  they  obliged  to  submit  to  it  in  their  turn. 
No  argument  is  surely  needed  to  prove  that  the  practical 
operations  of  this  rule  would  dry  the  tears  of  thousands, 
would  unify  the  interests  of  communities  everywhere, 


RIGHT    RESPECTING    RIGHT.  475 

would  abate  arrogance,  inspire  hope,  promote  civil  order 
and  diminish  crime.  We  will  not  suppose  it  possible  that 
anyone  can  doubt  this ;  and  by  these  desirable  results  we 
earnestly  urge  our  readers  who  are  anxious  for  social  re- 
form to  leave  the  quackeries  and  nostrums  of  Quixotic 
Political  Economists  and  adopt  and  enforce  the  Divinely- 
given  Golden  Rule. 

It  may  possibly  assist  them  to  do  so,  if  they  will  con- 
sider the  force  of  a  very  profound  maxim  enunciated  by 
Bossuet  in  his  Politique  Sacree :  "There  is  no  right  against 
right/'  which  Lacordaire  thinks  finds  a  higher  expression 
in  the  formula  :  "  There  is  no  right  against  duty."  Taken 
either  way,  we  have  what  is  evidently  a  truism,  and  one 
admirably  fitted  to  determine  the  application  of  Christ's 
law  in  almost  any  given  circumstances.  There  can  be  no 
right  against  right.  There  are  the  rights  of  property  and 
the  rights  of  wealth.  These  must  be  respected;  but,  how- 
ever sacred  they  may  be,  they  are  checked  and  bounded  by 
the  right  of  labor  to  adequate  compensation  and  of  human- 
ity to  freedom  and  respect.  No  man  has  such  a  right  in 
property  as  to  be  at  liberty  to  urge  the  advantage  which  it 
gives  to  the  injury  of  others.  It  may  be  said  that  in  em- 
ploying* workmen  the  master  has  the  right  to  obtain  their 
services  at  the  lowest  market  price.  Within  reasonable 
limits  this  is  admitted.  But  when  the  price  paid  means 
slow  starvation  and  swift  degradation,  he  has  no  right  to 
avail  himself  of  the  distress  which  places  these  workmen 
at  his  mercy.  No  amount  of  special  pleading  can  prove 
that  he  is  warranted  in  compelling  the  misfortunes  of 
others  to  contribute  toward  his  material  prosperity.  It  is 
no  excuse  if  he  abuses  his  horses  and  maltreats  them  that 
they  are  helpless,  and  dependent  on  him.  Society  pro- 
nounces such  a  callous  wretch  deserving  of  punishment. 
Even  horses  have  rights  that  right  cannot  rightfully  in- 
vade. How  about  men?  Are  they  of  less  worth,  and 


476  STUDIES   IX    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

have  they  fewer  claims  on  their  fellows  than  animals? 
Suppose  we  adopt  Lacordaire's  formula,  and  see  its  prac- 
tical bearing:  "There  is  no  right  against  duty ";  that  is, 
no  right  you  may  possess  can  possibly  release  you  from  the 
duties  you  owe  humanity.  What  are  your  duties  gentle- 
men? Do  you  acknowledge  any?  Whether  you  recognize 
them  or  not,  among  them  will  be  found  an  obligation  to 
pay  what  yon  promise,  and  an  obligation  to  minister  to  the 
well-being  and  not  to  the  evil-being  of  all  about  you.  You 
are  to  respect  their  manhood  and  womanhood;  you  are 
bound  to  advance  and  not  retard  their  interests;  and  yon 
are  bound  to  sympathize  with  them,  and  do  all  in  your 
power  to  promote  their  happiness.  And  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind  that  just  in  proportion  as  you  are  yourselves 
privileged  by  genius,  position  and  wealth  beyond  them,  are 
these  duties  more  imperative.  There  is  no  significance  in 
leadership  if  this  is  not  the  case.  If  God  has  not  endowed 
some  men  more  richly  than  others  and  prospered  them 
more  abundantly,  that  they  may  be  living  blessings  to  the 
world,  then  their  existence  is  a  reflection  on  the  morality 
of  His  government.  Such  a  reflection  we  resent.  Robert 
Browning  interprets  better  the  Divine  purpose  when  he 
writes: 

Tis  in  the  advance  of  individual  minds 

That  the  slow  crowd  should  ground  their  expectations 

Eventually  to  follow — as  the  sea 

Waits  ages  in  its  bed,  'till  some  one  wave 

Out  of  the  multitude  aspires,  extends 

The  empire  of  the  whole,  some  feet  perhaps, 

Over  the  strip  of  sand  which  could  confine 

Its  fellows  so  long  time:  thenceforth  the  rest, 

Even  to  the  meanest,  hurry  in  at  once, 

And  so  much  is  clear  gain. 

They  are  to  open  the  way  for  others;  they  are  to  help 
others  over  barriers  and  impediments;  and  they  are  to 
champion  their  cause  and  encourage  their  endeavors.  Their 


BIBLE   DOCTRIXE.  4?7 

privileges  correctly  construed  mean  obligations,  and  their 
fulfillment  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  favor  conferred,  but 
as  a  debt  discharged.  Right  to  own  a  million  dollars  or 
ten  million,  and  rights  of  brain  or  of  skill,  do  not  exempt, 
cannot  exempt  from  the  performance  of  duty.  Take  this 
thought  with  you,  and  you  will  find  no  very  serious  diffi- 
culty in  applying  the  Golden  Rule;  for  even  when  you  are 
in  doubt  as  to  what  is  really  your  neighbors  due,  the  con- 
sideration of  your  own  duty  will  readily  decide  the  point; 
and,  as  Schiller  sings, 

Tims  linked  the  master  with  the  man 
Each  in  his  rights  can  each  revere. 

And  not  only  so;  but  thus  all  classes,  ranks  and  orders 
would  be  bound  together,  and  Society  as  a  whole  would  be 
cemented,  strengthened,  prospered.  This  is  our  hope.  Let 
justice  be  thus  exalted,  and  then  as  Horace  expresses  it, 
"  man's  neck  will  have  no  yoke  that  sorrow  draws,"  and 
"  the  wildest  blasts  that  heave  the  sea  will  awake  no  fear 
of  wreck.'' 

If  it  is  necessary  to  confirm  what  we  have  set  forth 
relative  to  the  indispensableness  of  justice  to  Society,  we 
need  only  observe  its  supreme  position  in  the  government 
of  the  universe.  AVhat  it  is  in  the  Divine  administration 
we  may  rest  assured,  it  ought  to  be  in  the  human.  Mark 
the  stress  laid  on  righteousness  in  the  Bible.  God  claims 
to  be  its  God;  He  clothes  His  people  with  it:  they  are  to 
hunger  for  it.  and  to  be  rewarded  by  it  at  last.  Christ  is 
presented  as  "the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness,''  and 
His  atonement  finds  its  explanation  and  vindication  in  the 
statements  that  He  died  the  just  for  the  unjust  that  He 
might  bring  them  to  God,  and  that  God  might  be  just  and 
the  justifier  of  the  ungodly.  However  much  salvation  was 
desired  by  the  Father  of  us  all  for  us  all,  He  would  not  to 
secure  it  jeopardize  the  sanctity  of  law.  He  creates  the 


478  STUDIES  IK   SOCIAL  LIFE, 

impression    by  the    entire    scheme    of    redemption   that 

justice  is 

The  keystone  of  the  worlds'  wide  arch; 
The  one  sustaining  and  sustained  by  all, 
Which  if  it  fall,  brings  all  in  ruin  down. 

And  the  history  of  the  race,  which  is  but  a  running  com- 
mentary on  His  purposes  and  plans,  inevitably  drives  us 
to  the  same  conclusion.  We  there  read  of  nations,  of  their 
rise,  progress  and  decay,  and  at  the  beginning  we  always 
find  some  virtue,  and  at  the  end,  some  vice  and  oppression. 
Not  at  this  late  hour  is  it  incumbent  on  us  to  verify  this 
statement  by  causing  the  melancholy  army  of  nations  to 
march  before  you.  Over  and  over  again  have  students  dis- 
closed the  fate  of  Thebes,  of  Nineveh,  of  Athens,  of  Rome, 
of  Venice,  solemn  witnesses  all  that  the  Lord  God  omnipo- 
tent reigneth,  and  that  He  will  at  last  exact  from  commu- 
nities as  from  individuals,  penalty  for  their  transgressions. 
We  need  not  here  repeat  the  accounts  of  disasters  that 
overtook  and  ovenvhelmed  these  great  centers  of  popula- 
tion. The  story  is  familiar  enough  ;  but  it  may  be  in- 
structive to  notice  how  God's  dealings  with  men  and  cities 
have  affected  some  of  the  wisest  and  deepest  thinkers  of 
the  race.  These  great  minds  betray  the  settled  conviction 
that  while  human  tribunals  may  be  eluded,  and  the  guilty 
escape  the  condemnation  of  earth,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid 
the  righteous  decisions  of  the  invisible  Judgment  Seat. 
They  seem  to  be  filled  with  apprehensions  and  uncontroll- 
able fear  before  the  awful  form  of  that  Justice  which  is 
independent  of  secular  courts  and  magistrates,  and  which 
is  as  impartial  as  it  is  sure.  Ancient  and  modern  litera- 
tures are  burdened  with  passages  of  this  character,  andx 
often  do  the  words  of  authors  on  this  theme  come  to  us  as 
the  poignant  cry  wrung  from  despairing  souls.  The  Tamil 
proverb  fitly  introduces  these  testimonies:  "The  bitter 
tears  of  the  oppressed  are  a  file  that  wears  away  the  wealth 


RETRIBUTION.  479 

of  the  oppressor ; "  and  the  Arabs  have  the  saying,  "  There 
is  no  protection  for  the  unjust."  But  if  we  turn  to  the 
classics  we  find  ^Eschylus  affirming,  "It  remains  as  long 
as  Jove  remains  that,  he  who  has  done  the  deed  must 
suffer;"  and  even  Euripides  exclaims,  "In  the  end  the 
good  obtain  their  due,  but  the  wicked  as  they  are  by  na- 
ture, will  never  fare  well."  Plutarch  writing  of  the  mis- 
eries which  follow  crime,  says,  "  The  poets  and  dramatists 
have  borne  witness  to  the  apprehensions  which  attend  on 
guilt.  Stesichorus  represents  the  guilty  Clytemnestra 
as  having  a  dream,  in  which  a  dragon  with  a  bloody  head 
seemed  to  approach  her,  presaging  the  vengeance  which 
Orestes  was  to  take  upon  her  for  murdering  his  father. 
They  relate  of  Apollodorus,  a  monster  of  humanity,  that 
he  dreamed  he  was  skinned  alive  by  the  Scythians,  and 
then  seethed  in  a  caldron,  from  which  his  heart  cried  out 
to  him  ever  and  anon,  "For  all  this  you  have  to  thank 
me."  These  terrible  forebodings,  all  inexplicable  unless 
there  is  an  inexorable  Judge,  recalls  the  words  of  the  phil- 
osophical poet  Lucretius  :  "The  sourge,  the  executioner, 
the  dungeon,  the  pitchy  tunic — even  though  these  be  ab- 
sent, yet  the  guilty  mind,  with  anticipating  terror  applies 
the  goad,  and  scorches  with  its  blows."  And  this  again 
recalls  the  language  of  Juvenal :  "  Whatever  sin  is  com- 
mitted it  always  displeases  the  sinner  himself.  This  is  the 
first  penalty,  that  no  guilty  man  is  acquitted  when  he  sits 
in  judgment  on  himself,  though  the  wicked  grace  of  the 
praetor  may  conquer  in  the  fallacious  urn.''  Tennyson  has 
reproduced  this  thought  when  he  shows  that  there  never 
can  be  quiet  or  peace  for  man 

*        *        *        to  ever  bear  about 
A  silent  court  of  justice  in  himself, 
Himself  the  judsre  and  jury,  and  himself 
The  prisoner  at  the  bar  ever  condemned, — 
And  that  drags  down  his  life. 


480  STUDIES  Itf  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

But  beyond  this,  Lycurgus  to  point  out  the  responsibil- 
ity of  men  for  the  wrong-doing  of  others,  said  impressively 
during  the  trial  of  Lescrates,  "  Crimes  as  long  as  they  are 
untried,  rest  upon  those  who  have  committed  them;  but 
after  the  trial  has  taken  place,  they  rest  upon  those  who 
have  not  pursued  them  according  to  justice.  Know  well, 
judges,  that  each  of  you  now  voting  secretly  will  have  to 
show  his  vote  to  the  gods."  In  other  words,  the  justice  of 
the  universe  is  so  searching  and  so  stable,  and  is  so  inter- 
blended  with  the  destiny  of  every  creature,  that  it  will  pun- 
ish us  not  only  for  our  own  sins,  and  for  the  aid  and  com- 
fort we  give  to  the  iniquities  of  others,  but  for  the  deci- 
sions we  reach  and  pronounce,  if  not  in  accord  with  law 
and  with  fact.  It  was  the  realization  of  this  truth  that  led 
Daniel  Webster  in  closing  the  trial  of  Prescott,  1821,  to 
appeal  fervently  and  solemnly  to  the  judges  : 

It  is  not  the  world's  revision  I  would  call  on  you  to  regard,  but 
that  of  your  own  conscience,  when  years  have  gone  by  and  you  shall 
look  back  on  the  sentence  you  are  about  to  render.  I  entreat  you 
for  your  own  sakes  to  possess  yourselves  of  solid  reasons,  founded  in 
truth  and  justice  for  the  judgement  you  pronounce  which  you  can 
carry  with  you  till  you  go  down  into  your  graves;  reasons  which  it 
will  require  no  argument  to  revive,  no  sophistry,  no  excitement,  no 
regard  to  popular  favor,  to  render  satisfactory  to  your  consciences; 
reasons  which  you  can  appeal  to  in  every  crisis  of  your  lives,  and 
which  shall  be  able  to  assure  you,  in  your  own  great  extremity  that 
you  have  not  judged  a  fellow  creature  without  mercy  ? 

So  magnificent,  and  benign  and  terrible  is  justice!  Be- 
fore her  Shakspeare  and  Schiller  bring  the  masterful  char- 
acters they  have  created,  and  in  the  workings  of  their  con- 
science disclose  the  awful  majesty  of  her  power.  As  seen 
in  their  Avonderful  portrayals  she  is  indeed  regal,  glorious, 
divine.  Her  voice  wails  through  the  chilly  halls  of 
Inverness  castle:  "  Macbeth  has  murdered  sleep  :  Macbeth 
shall  sleep  no  more;"  her  soundless  feet  fall  in  Richard's 
tent,  and  from  the  grave  she  calls  forth  the  victims  of  his 


THE  JUST  ONE.  481 

cruelty  to  sit  heavy  on  his  sword  ;  her  invisible  hands 
plant  in  the  bosom  of  the  adulterous  queen  the  thorns  that 
"prick  and  sting  her;"  her  presence  haunts  the  guilty 
even  in  far  off  desolate  islands,  and  keeps  before  him  the 
face  of  one  betrayed  : 

Oh,  it  is  monstrous,  monstrous! 
Methought  the  billows  spoke  and  told  me  of  it ; 
The  wind  did  sing  it  to  me;  and  the  thunder, 
That  deep  and  dreadful  organ  pipe,  pronounced 
The  name  of  Prosper. 

And  from  his  impregnable  stronghold  she  drags  Fran- 
cis von  Moore  in  his  dreams  to  the  judgment  seat,  and 
shrieks  in  his  ear  the  damning  word  "Parricide,"  and  fills 
his  soul  with  horrible  questionings: 

Why  creeps  this  shudder  through  my  frame? — To  Die! — Why 
does  that  word  fright  me  thus? — To  give  an  account  to  the  Avenger, 
there,  above  the  stars !  and  if  he  should  be  just — the  wail  of  orphans 
and  widows,  of  the  oppressed,  the  tormented,  ascending  to  his  ears, 
and  he  be  just  ? 

Yes;  He  is  just;  these  pangs,  agonies  and  forebodings 
are  evidences  conclusive  that  He  is;  and  if  He  is,  and  if  His 
justice  in  the  government  of  the  universe  is  thus  all-per- 
vasive ;  and  if  all  schemes,  plots  and  wiles  fail  to  elude  it, 
and  if  it  is  the  foundation  of  His  kingdom  and  the  source 
of  its  stability,  must  we  not  conclude  that  human  Society 
will  be  stronger,  more  sacred  and  more  prosperous,  when  it 
is  made  the  rule  of  its  conduct  and  the  end  of  its  institu- 
tions? If  God  cannot  dispense  with  justice,  and  if  its 
subversion  would  spread  disorder  and  ruin  throughout 
his  domains,  may  we  not  take  the  warning  and  believe 
that  no  remarkable  change  for  the  better  can  take  place  in 
our  affairs  until  we  have  determined  to  do  it  honor?  As- 
suredly no  earthly  organization  can  stand  or  flourish  where 
its  authority  is  denied,  and  its  supremacy  is  scorned. 
We  may  have  a  secular  administration  as  perfect  as  that  of 
31 


482  STUDIES   IX   SOCIAL  LIFE. 

Caesar  Augustus,  where  law  and  order  were  more  highly 
esteemed  and  more  regularly  enforced  than  under  any 
other  ancient  monarch  ;  and  yet,  like  his  empire  where  no 
enthusiasm  for  right  prevailed,  our  country  may  fall  to 
pieces,  as  Imperial  Rome  did,  through  multiplied  corrup- 
tions and  dishonesties  polluting  and  emasculating  the 
heart.  Something  like  this  already  threatens  us  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  course  of  these  studies  ;  and  in  confirma- 
tion of  the  alarm  we  have  given,  Dr.  Engel,  director  of  the 
Royal  Statistical  Office  of  Berlin,  sends  forth  this  solemn 
word:  "There  is,  notwithstanding  all  the  humane  en- 
deavors on  the  part  of  individual  employers,  and  the  heroic 
exertions  after  frugal  self-help  on  that  of  many  workmen, 
a  consumption  of  men  in  favor  of  capital — a  consumption 
which,  by  wearing  out  the  vital  strength  of  individuals, 
by  enfeebling  whole  generations,  by  breaking  up  families, 
by  letting  men  run  morally  wild,  and  by  its  destruction  of 
all  alacrity  in  labor,  endangers  in  the  highest  degree  the 
state  of  civilized  society."  Woe  to  Europe,  woe  to  Amer- 
ica if  this  tendency  shall  continue  ;  and  woe  to  every  com- 
munity if  nothing  is  done  to  eradicate  the  sense  of  wrong 
from  the  heart  of  the  lowly,  suffering  millions  : 

"  Yea,  woe  when  in  the  city's  heart 
The  latent  spark  to  flame  is  blown  ; 
And  millions  from  their  silence  start 
To  claim  without  a  guide  their  own." 

Matthew  Arnold  has  said  that  "religion  is  morality 
touched  by  emotion;"  certainly  justice  to  be  really  justice 
must  be  touched  by  religion.  Never  can  it  be  produced 
and  maintained  by  Agnosticism  and  Utilitarianism.  They 
may  develop  something  that  looks  like  it,  as  a  mask  may 
resemble  a  face  or  an  artificial  flower  one  that  grows  in  our 
gardens.  But  as  these  are  not  identical,  so  neither  is  the 
pliant  time-serving  quality  called  justice  by  the  worshipers 
of  expediency  one  and  the  same  with  that  inflexible  virtue 


THE   OLD   GRAY   MAK.  483 

which  is  born  of  sincere  belief  in  the  eternity  and  immuta- 
bility of  right.  The  faith  that  has  for  its  first  term  the 
Unknown  and  for  its  last  the  Unconscious,  can  never  give 
rise  to  the  true  and  grand  idea  of  obligation.  A  recent 
writer  has  presented  what  he  describes  as  the  Apostate's 
Creed:  "I  believe  iiuthe  Chaotic  Nebula,  self-existent 
Evolver  of  Heaven  and  earth  *  *  *  in  the  disunion  of 
saints  *  *  *  the  dispersion  of  the  body,  and  in  Death 
Everlasting,  amen:"  and  the  latest  formula  of  the  ethics 
derived  from  these  doctrines  we  have  in  the  language  of  a 
popular  infidel:  "  Do  the  best  you  can  in  existing  circum- 
stances." Policy,  policy,  nothing  but  policy,  expresses  the 
quintessence  of  their  morality;  and  policy  has  been  the 
curse  of  several  generations  gone,  and  is  so  still.  We  have 
been  taught,  and  many  yet  teach,  that  we  are  to  do  what 
is  best,  not  what  is  right,  and  by  a  species  of  metaphysical 
juggling  an  effort  is  made  to  show  that  what  is  best  is  cer- 
tainly right.  If  there  is  to  be  a  salutary  change,  if  hope 
is  to  dawn  upon  us,  the  nations  must  return  to  God.  Only 
in  the  light  of  His  being  and  of  oiir  relations  to  Him,  can 
we  grasp  the  force  of  the  idea  involved  in  the  term  "owe," 
and  come  to  realize  that  there  is  a  necessary  and  ceaseless 
distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  When  these  things 
are  understood,  then  there  will  no  longer  be  one  law  for 
Rome  and  another  for  Boston,  nor  one  law  for  the  rich  and 
another  for  the  poor;  and  then  instead  of  permitting  cir- 
cumstances to  determine  our  line  of  action,  it  will  in  essen- 
tial morality  be  the  same  under  every  variety  of  conditions. 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne  relates  the  New  England  legend  of 
the  Old  Gray  Man  who  appeared  in  Boston  when  the 
emissaries  of  the  Catholic  James  harassed  and  distressed 
the  citizens.  On  the  day  when  they  paraded  in  the  streets 
with  drums  and  muskets,  and  when  the  people  looked  on 
sullen  and  helpless,  an  aged  puritan  suddenly  appeared. 
He  was  dressed  in  the  costume  of  some  sixty  years  before, 


484  STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

and  leaned  heavily  on  his  cane.  No  one  knew  him.  On- 
ward he  walked,  and  stopped  the  little  army,  and  rebuked 
its  leaders,  predicting  the  accession  of  William  to  the  Eng- 
lish throne.  Then  he  disappeared  as  suddenly  as  he  came. 
No  one  knew  whither  he  went;  but  years  after  he  strode 
down  King  street  when  the  hireli»g  troops  fired  on  the 
crowds  there  gathered;  and  at  Lexington  he  was  seen 
inspiring  the  farmer-soldiers,  and  at  Bunker  Hill  he  moved 
among  the  patriots,  aiding  them  and  encouraging.  Haw- 
thorne tells  us  he  is  the  spirit,  or  the  representative  of  the 
spirit  of  New  England.  To  us  he  is  something  more;  he 
represents  the  genius  of  Puritanism,  of  the  faith  that  made 
the  Colonies  strong  and  fearless,  that  laid  the  foundations 
of  our  national  life,  and  that  made  our  fathers  the  sworn 
enemies  of  tyranny.  The  Old  Man  is  needed  once  more. 
Open  the  way  there,  and  invite  him  back.  Something 
more  valuable  than  liberty  is  imperiled,  precious  though 
that  blessing  is.  Justice  has  been  stricken  down,  she 
lies  prostrate  and  bleeding  in  our  streets;  the  deadly  bullets 
of  monopoly,  selfishness,  anarchy,  and  impiety  have  torn, 
lacerated  and  maimed  her.  There  is  no  help  for  her  unless 
the  old  Puritan  comes  back.  Faith  of  our  sires  return, 
return;  breathe  upon  us;  kindle  anew  our  devotion;  and 
then  touched  by  the  very  life  of  God,  justice  shall  revive, 
shall  seize  once  more  her  scales  and  sword,  and  in  her  stain- 
less robes  and  from  her  sacred  throne  shall  rebuke  the  op- 
pressor, succor  the  oppressed,  and  throughout  the  earth 
bring  in  the  age  of  purity,  prosperity  and  peace. 

This  is  the  Hope  of  Society. 

Not  Socialism,  not  Communism,  not  Land  Confisca- 
tion, not  Paternalism,  not  Anarchy — but  JUSTICE!  Jus- 
tice, first,  last,  and  altogether;  Justice  equal  and  exact  to 
all  persons,  of  whatever  rank  or  opinion,  religious  or 
political. 


